Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: Managing Time Effectively, Dealing With Stress & How To Stay Motivated

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

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Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a Q&A episode. I know you guys have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this to come out. We've gotten a lot more questions. We got more questions more frequent.

and we really appreciate everybody that has submitted a question. If you want to get your question answered, submit to Barn Talk Show at gmail.com. That's where we get our questions in, and that's where we'll see them, and that's how we'll answer them. But before we get into the Q&A, pay the fee guys. If you get any value from the show, share it out with your friends, family, coworkers, employees, whoever, we're trying to grow this thing. The more you guys share the show, the better guests we can have on.

it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. So thank you to everybody that has been doing that and continues to do it. Leave a review on Spotify or Apple. We're up to like 480, five-star reviews on Spotify and 208 on Apple. And for the size podcasts that we have, the amount of reviews that we have for the size is like phenomenal. It means you guys are awesome. Yeah, it means you guys really do do the due diligence of leaving a review and paying the fee. So we really do appreciate that tremendously.

But no market update today. We're going to just get right into the Q&A, right into the nitty gritty because we got some damn good questions. So question number one. This is from Travis. And also just to throw out there, when you guys submit a question, we'll just use your first name. We won't use your last name because if you ever want to ask us something really deep or personal. we're not going to expose you to the world. Yeah, and if you do want to add something deep or personal, we love aliases.

Yeah. Yeah, you could always have an alias. That's all right, too. What's your alias? Larry Kenegandorf. Yep, that's my... That's a pretty good one. Actually, that's a great alias, but he is a real person.

He's actually a friend of my father-in-law, but when I used to work the trade shows and I would get somebody that caught me in an aisle or caught me in a booth that I didn't really want to talk to, and I didn't want to get to. and I didn't want to give out my personal information. They'd introduce themselves and say, hey, you know, who are you? And I just like Clockwork. But, yep, Larry, Larry Kenegandorf.

I'm from Kenosha, Wisconsin. And I worked at Baldwin Telecom. And it worked like a charm. And hopefully the real Larry never got any crap emails or junk mail because of me. But I used to use his name. Professional bullshitter. Yep, absolutely. You need to put that in your profile.

100%. Yeah, your LinkedIn profile. Yeah. this is from Travis. Shout out to you, Travis. Thanks for the question. My question is, my question has to do with grain prices and how do you guys decide when to sell, how much to sell, and the risks involved? Any contracts you get from the elevator and which ones you like the best and how they work? So I'll give you the, I'll give you the, there's a multitude of ways to answer that. And the first simple answer is we sell grain when we need money.

That's number one. And I wish we were in a position where we didn't need it and we could just sit on it until we thought it was good. But what I do, really, is I start out the year and I know what my expenses are. I know what I've got invested in the crop that I'm going to put in the ground. And I'm looking out and I'm – I use crop insurance, so I buy crop insurance. So I know that worst case scenario, I've got a proven up yield off of what I've raised the last how many years, that I know worst case scenario I'm going to get this many dollars of income if things really go to pot.

And that gives me, I guess you'd say, that gives me peace of mind that I can go out and say, okay, if the right price is available for fall delivery of corn or soybeans at one of the local elevators or at the river, if I want to pay the truck and get to the river, I'll go ahead and forward contract. Now, I haven't always done that. In fact, I want to say that maybe three years ago was the first time that I ever sold any crop before that crop was made. But today, it's like anything, you kind of get a comfort level with it. And so I'm looking out, and when I get to, you know, the markets run on, they run on fear, 100% fear. They trade fear is what they do. And they run up on fear, and then if fear subsides, that's how they drop. And when you look out, sometimes you get an opportunity and you can capitalize on that.

So the most crop that I will ever sell ahead is maybe like 25%, so not a lot, but something. And I'll look at that as, okay, I've got this much of my crop priced and I've got this much income, guaranteed. out of what's out of what's going to happen. Does that usually pay what's left if the insurance comes in to play? So you'll market ahead 25% you know that that's guaranteed and that's going to pay the expenses for your crop. Yeah, exactly. Now, we are, and you've heard me say this,

and I'll tell you, an upcoming episode definitely needs to be about grain marketing and you've heard us when we give the market update. We always give a shout out to Katz grain in Washington, Iowa. They're a grain broker here in town, and they actually buy grain for several of the hog producers around here. They actually buy the grain for their mills. And so on any given day, they've got umpteen bids in there, and we're very lucky where we are that we have such a strong basis.

And so there are opportunities all the time where, when you get close to fall, you can see one hog producer versus another. They're out measuring their bins, and they know what they need and what they need to get as soon as those combines roll. So bids fluctuate a lot, the closer you get to fall. And then once we get into fall, they can fluctuate a lot the same way, really the year-round. But I'll just say this. So today, all my beans are sold.

This is one of those years where the basis has been strong, even at the river, and I felt like I had as good a price as I was probably going to get. And so I can store pretty much all my crop. Within about 15,000 bushel, we can store all our crop on site, which that's something else that makes a difference. obviously if you don't have the storage to store your crop, you're probably not going to, you're going to sell it all out of the field,

or you're going to pay somebody to store it. If you're doing that, that all plays into how long you're going to hold it and all that. It's all different. Everybody's situation is different. But, you know, obviously we sell enough crop to pay the bills. Ahead. Yep.

Well, to pay the bills. And then when we get into fall, obviously before the end of the year, we got stuff we got to pay for. And then if you're lucky enough that you have in, and you think like any good farmer, everybody beats up on Donald Trump because he didn't want to pay taxes. Well, if you're a farmer and you're paying taxes, I grew up on the notion that if you pay taxes, you're doing it wrong. Now, I've had a few CPAs tell me that that's probably not the

right way to look at it. But obviously, if you have any money left before the end of the year, there's always tons of expenses that you can prepay or pay for stuff that needs done that pretty much you're going to get rid of it. All I'll say about the CPA thing is if your CPA is telling you not to play the tax code, like that's what the tax code's for to play so you don't pay tax. So you need to find a new CPA, just saying if you have somebody like that. We can jump off on that sometime. I'll finish this thought and just say that,

I don't do a lot of, I don't play the Board of Trade. I don't hedge. That's something that you and I, you and I have had this conversation a lot. I am, I kind of go back and forth. I'd say I'm probably fairly close to getting to the point that I very well may have somebody market my grain for me, just because I have too many times overstayed the market. I did a really good job this year marketing up through harvest and then the corn that I have left in the bin I'd say honestly I should have sold it and I didn't because I felt like okay well this thing with the war in Ukraine and and everything I thought that there was more upside and there still could be but I feel like right now they're getting rain in South America and I feel like the war is all

priced in and this thing's just kind of dragging sideways. and if I had to go back, I would have just sold it all. So it's really hard to know what's right and what's wrong, and that's where maybe having somebody that you set some minimums with and you pay them their bit to market your grain for you. I don't know. There's pros and cons of both, and I haven't done that yet, but that's something that we may look at in the future.

And at the end of the day, I'll just say that we're very lucky to be where we are because we have a very strong basis because of the production agriculture, the hog business, the cattle feeders. We go through just a hell of a lot of grain in southeast Iowa, and as a result, we have really good basis levels, and there's always opportunities. And so there really isn't a right or wrong answer for that. You just got to kind of figure out what works for you. and where you're at, where you're, if you got storage, where you're, where you are at, what's your

base is going to, what's it look like? I was going to ask you, and this is kind of a tough question, because it's hard for us to give people advice on marketing their grain if they're in a different area because we've grown up here, you've grown up here your whole life with basis being pretty damn good most of the times. I know not all these hog producers were here 20, 5, 30 years ago. go, but do you have any advice for somebody that can't get insurance, crop insurance? Because, yeah, you know, because there's young guys out there starting out that, you know, they don't have the years of deal built up. And if you farm somewhere, if you're farming dry land corn, say you're farming dry land corn

someplace where a lot of people are irrigating, or you're farming somewhere where you get the soil is light and if you don't get consistent rain, I mean, it's a difference between having a crop or having no crop. Those guys have a real hard time using crop insurance because they can't get five years in a row of good yields to where it pays worth of crap. And if you're doing that, your best, I feel like your best investment is probably on farm grain storage in the fact that you kind of control your own destiny when you do that. And you probably really need to work with somebody that is a grain broker that offers marketing

because what you do have, you've got, in other words, whatever crop you end up with, you're probably not going to sell ahead because you're not sure if you're going to have a crop and you don't have crop insurance. So then you need to play the game where you may say, that crop, but then you may turn around and you may buy it back on the board at a price. You know, you may pay for the right to buy that crop back and then turn around and resell it.

And that's where somebody that's a whole lot smarter than I am, that's a grain broker, can really help you out. And, you know, I feel like that that has kind of, there was a time that, maybe that was kind of looked down upon because there were a lot of guys in the 70s and 80s that made a lot of money on the board of trade and then lost their ass. And I've heard older guys say that the worst thing that could happen to some people is they make a bunch of money on the board of trade because it's kind of like a casino and then you lose your ass. But you just have to be smart about it.

And that's where today, it's just like when we talk about anything, there is so much knowledge out there that's free. and there's so many people that are given away really good information. And the competition between people that want to market your grain for you is probably stronger than it's ever been. So if I was in a situation where I couldn't sell a head crop and I didn't have crop insurance, I would probably market my grain in the fall after I harvest it

and then pay for the opportunity to own that, reown that crop at some point. and I would have to do it through a broker because I'm definitely not savvy enough to do it. You could learn it probably, though. I'm sure there's probably somewhere you can learn it. Internet guys, internet, mentor, have somebody mentor you. I mean, I don't know. And one last thing I'll say, because I just heard a guy talking about this today,

is a lot of times we as farmers, we get caught up on, we get caught up on that bid, that really good bid that's here or there or wherever. And today a lot of us have semis that we haul our own grain. And something that you really have to keep in mind is, one, even if you own your own semi and your truck and your own grain, which I do not, my neighbor trucks my grain for me, but even if you do, that bid that looks like it's, you know, better than everybody else,

your time to get it there, your time sitting in line, and that miles to go to get there, that all costs you something. And you have, I don't think, I don't think we do a good enough job as farmers of valuing our time. And that's one of the big advantages that we have here is literally, usually, not always, not 100%, but usually two of the strongest corn bids that I, that are around,

usually are within 10 miles of me. One's 10 miles south of me, and one's, well, not even 10 miles northwest of me. And the trucking to get there is minimal, and they're both set up to where they got high-speed dumps. And so my neighbor that hauls my corn, he will happily go there. Usually one of the strongest bids is in Cedar Rapids,

but nobody wants to go there because they know when they go there, waiting in line. You're going to be waiting in line. And so they charge accordingly. But if you're hauling your own, I know guys that haul their own, they'll go up there the night before

and they'll sleep in the damn cab just to deliver a thousand bushels of corn. Well, what's that worth? At the end of the day, the time that farmers can say that your time's not worth anything, no, your time's worth a lot, and you've got to figure that in.

And so I think that's something that you need to consider when you're thinking about where you, not only what price you marketed at, but where you marketed at, because that's valuable. And I just say every year's different. Oh, every year, what's happening on the world stage plays a huge factor, obviously, into the market. So just take every year differently, you know, it's because there's always shit going down sometimes. So that's all I'd say. I don't know much about marketing. Dad does a lot. He does all the marketing for us. It's something that I want to get, I want to learn and get better at, but I don't have much knowledge in it.

So you've kind of done that. You're supposed to ask me a question now. Oh, yeah. I was waiting for divine intervention. Okay, so this question's from Phil, and he asked, how do you guys manage your time to do things effectively? And then with that, he also asked, how do you stay motivated and want to get you? get out of bed every day. So I'll start with the first question. How do you guys manage your time to do

things effectively? I think this is everybody that works for themselves. This is something that's super, super hard to nail down because especially when you're a farmer because fires or a business owner, fires come every day. Shit knocks you off your schedule and you just kind of have to pivot and adjust. but I've tried to start becoming a list person. I try to plan out my week. What are the tasks that I got to do this week? Who do I need to reply to for the media side? What do we got to do get done for the media side?

Barn Talk, if we need to make a podcast, do we need to do YouTube videos for TDF. Then all the farm work we got to do. So you have your bait. I obviously know every day I got to get up in chores. So I'm not going to put that on my weekly tasks because that's not changing. I'm going to, the stuff that I do every day that's a constant, I'm not going to put on my weekly tasks.

I know I'm going to have to do them. But the shit that is interchangeable, I plan that stuff out. I just write down a list of all the shit I want to get done. And then every morning, you know, sometimes I get off. But just about every morning I try to get up, look at my weekly tasks, and then write down about three, maybe five, three to five. of those weekly tasks in my day. And if you don't get all five of them done, put the two or the one that you didn't get done that day into the next day. And you just, if you do that, five days a week, six days a week, seven days a week, your weekly task will just go away. And so that's something

that's been really helpful for me. I'm not perfect because shit happens, shit comes up. But when I do do that, I feel like I get a lot of shit done. And it also is nice because you kind of just see that list dwindle, especially when you start checking stuff up, stuff off. That's really, really nice. And I use a platform called Notion. And Notion is a phenomenal platform for just about anything. If you want to communicate with your team, if you want to plan out your week, plan out your day, it's a really good platform to use. And so that's where I plan out my week. And then I just have a journal that I plan out my day. And I kind of take, I think it's important to take your journal with almost everywhere so that when you get done with a task, you can cross it off. Just keep crossing

that stuff off every task you get done. So that's really what I found to be effective for me, time management-wise. And obviously we work together. So sometimes our schedules don't always line up and one of us has to adjust. But I found that most of the time, making lists, executing the list, really, really helps most of the time. I have the advantage in that I have two sons that are very, try to be very organized. And I just kind of coattail off of them because if I can pawn all the things that I think need to get done off onto Sawyer and it makes it to his list, then he keeps me accountable and I don't need a list. But I have done, I have tried to do a lot better

and I have gotten better over the years. For me it's a little different in that I feel like when I get up in the morning, one, get up early because you'll get nothing done if you can't get up early, I feel like. And then I have to have, like, I want to chore first thing every day. and that's just a weird it really makes no different it makes no difference when you do that task really but i get a sense of relief like if i can get up and i chore whatever sites i'm choring and i get that taken care of then i like have a little sigh of relief because i know that no matter what

else happens that day at least i got done what had to be done and that kind of helps me go and something else that if you're making a list not only your daily list but you know a weekly a monthly a yearly a yearly a 10 year list um a guy that i have a lot of respect for that i used to work for um he he told me that write down what you what the craziest goals you got the stuff that you want to have happen say you've got a time you've got a time 10 years, like in 10 years I want to own this or 10 years I want to build this. You write all that stuff down. And a lot of, it's all going to seem like there's no way that's going to happen.

But you do that and then you reflect upon that every month or every couple months. And he said, you'll be amazed in 10 years how many of those things will actually come true because subliminally, your mind has got that floating around in the back all the time and people you end up talking to and things you end up doing will ultimately lead you to accomplish these things that aren't really apt. They're kind of abstract on the front end, but you end up getting it. And so lists are important. And I'd say for us and our family, one of the things that is a real bonus,

it can be a real detriment too because, you know, we can all tell the stories about working with family. But we all keep each other accountable. And that helps. I'd say that helps us as much as anything in the fact that we're kind of together, even though we're all doing different things at different times, we all talk about our wins and our failures and we keep each other accountable. And that helps a lot. Yeah, and I just would say, when you look at those big goals and you get kind of overwhelmed

or you feel like that can't happen for you, you just, when you figure out the power of taking it day by day, because that's all you can do is taking shit day by day. And if you just really try to focus on winning the day, every day, that shit compounds over time and you will accomplish your goals. like i just don't think people really realize how important it is to just focus on getting three to five tasks done that move you forward to your goals it doesn't take you don't have to do 20 fucking tasks in a day and be good if you do three to five tasks every day to move you forward and towards your goals there's you're going to reach them if there's so much power and compounding over time a long enough

time horizon that you'll get there. So just try to win the day. I try to do that best I can. And I think having a plan is important because if you're just wandering, you're never going to know where you're going and you never know what you're going to do that day. So have a plan, but don't, don't overdo it. Know yourself, know what you can do in a day. And if you do that long enough, you'll get where you want to go. As far as how to stay motivated, how to get out of bed. I enjoy what we do. I enjoy building.

Truthfully, I'm doing what I love to do. I enjoy building shit. I love building a social media presence, a brand. I love building this farm. I love building businesses. I love doing all the stuff that I'm doing. And there's shit that comes with it that sucks, obviously. But I know you got to just keep your eye on, your mind on what it can look like.

if you continually do the work that needs to get done. And what is the alternative? Like you got to think about, it's just back to what our kind of our Christmas special episode was about. You got to choose your heart. Are you going to choose the heart of staying in bed, watching Netflix, you know,

spending all your time on your phone, or, and then end up being depressed, lonely, unsatisfied, unfulfilled because you just do that for 10 years, you know, you don't strive for anything great. Versus the other hard, which is getting your ass up when you don't want to, completing your tasks, getting in good shape, getting smarter, whatever it is, whatever your goals are.

And you do that, and it sucks sometimes, but it's good to other times. At least in 10 years, you're going to have a reward for doing that kind of hard versus the other hard, which is you're getting a kind of a shit sandwich and you're going to just continually keep eating shit sandwiches unless you pick the other hard. So that's my thing. I'm just like, what's the alternative? I don't want the other hard. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa,

whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero, more than. like having year yes save the everyday with amazon yeah on on that as far as staying motivated what i think about is and this goes with like staying organized maybe but i have said this many times and i was just thinking about the examples so life is about a lot of mundane days doing mundane stuff working up towards a few big things that change the trajectory of what you're

doing and I'll give you an example so I remember the day that we unloaded the first load of pigs into the first hog building that I built back in 2010 and I said to my wife today is a day that changes the whole trajectory of this family. And I remember the day that you and your brother bought your first property. And we went out for dinner because I told you guys, I said, this, this changes your whole trajectory. And when Sawyer built his first hog building, I remember the day that we got that done,

and I said the same thing. Today is the first day. Like everything you've been doing, you've been working towards this, and now you've got it, and it changes your trajectory. And that's why that list of stuff is so important because you do a whole lot of stuff that seems like it,

you know, it's not a big deal. But if you have something you're working towards, you just chip away, chip away, chip away, and then one day you accomplish one of those things on that list and then that just accelerates what you're doing or changes the direction of what you're doing. And so my motivation is I think about those things that we're working towards

and we can't change that trajectory unless we do all the little stuff to put us in the position that we can get, get that one, that one win that's going to change. And so, that drives. Yeah, I would 100% agree with that. And I'd also say, most days were not motivated, guys. It's, that's a sugar-coated word that people like to throw around, not digging or bagging on the person asked this question, not digging on you, Phil. But motivation is a bunch of shit. You got to stay disciplined. Like, there's days where we don't want to go do load pigs at three in the morning. But we have to do it

because it's a small task and it's going to get us forward. You know, there's days that you don't want to do shit, but you just have to do it because those are the days you've got to think about what you're saying right there. You got to find it in yourself to go because you got to go or else you're going to have a hard life the other way. I'd say that motivates me, that right there. I think legacy motivates both of us, obviously.

I feel like dad and I have been given an opportunity. that other generations before us didn't get as far as this social media, the ability to learn whatever we need to learn to move us forward and get us smarter than, you know, previous generations. They didn't have this opportunity to learn as much information as we do. The ability to reach all you guys and reach people by creating content. That would never exist. Just the endless opportunities that we've been given,

we feel that, you know, we can really leave our market. in a big way and we feel almost obligated to do so because four generations before us put their fucking blood, sweat and tears into this thing. And we feel like we have the most opportunity ever to take what they built and make it extremely better. If, you know, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, thing is, and this is kind of, this is kind of dark and deep. But I listened, I saw a video of, you know, Ed Milet, he's a really good entrepreneur businessman that puts out content, but he talked about how you pretty much thinking about, you know, your last time, like,

I don't know, it was like your last time with a family relative. And you were maybe you were doing something that you didn't like doing with that person. But what if that was the last time that you did something with that family relative? And I look at when we do shit together. And like, sometimes I don't want to go and fix a cable curtain or a curtain cable, sorry. And, you know, that's the last thing I want to do. But what if that was the last time that my dad and I worked together? You know, I know that's fucking sad, but, you know, that might be the motivation you need to get up and go do that thing. you don't want to do because that could be the last time that you do something with that person. We're lucky enough that we work together, but I'm just saying I use that a lot sometimes

because that's just good advice for everybody that you deal with on a daily basis because we all deal with people that sometimes really piss us off. And, you know, if you treated everybody that we won't go down that road, but I'll just say, you know, everybody deserves some grace because every day you run into people that you, you you could be having the best day ever and you run into them when they're having the worst day they've ever had. So you just never know. So it's, you got to, you got to try, you got to try to get out of your own, get out of your own yuck and be the best version of you every day. And that, boy, that's like a, you know, whatever.

And there's some days that let's face it, you're just going to suck. But, um, it's getting back on the saddle. I'll say this, and then we'll move on. I almost feel like we have a little bit of an advantage or anybody that is in a situation where we are where we cannot kiss off chorn pigs. If you're raising any kind of livestock or a job where you have a responsibility, we chore our our hogs seven days a week 365 days a year unless we're gone and we hire somebody to do it for us and

a lot of people would look at that as like a hindrance and yeah sometimes you don't want to do it but you know really it's almost kind of like a blessing in the fact that that helps us be

that helps us be consistent because if nothing else gets done And believe me, there are days that nothing else gets done except we get the pigs chored. But those pigs have to get chored every day. And I think if more people had one thing that they absolutely had to get done every day, we'd probably be better for it. And I think that when you do that one thing, you've given yourself some momentum. Right.

Staying in bed, the ball's not rolling. You're not rolling. but when you get a task out of the way, especially the task that has to be done, that's probably the hardest thing that you'll do all day, out of the way, now you're rolling a little bit. You know, you have a little bit more of like, okay, let's get some more shit done.

Last thing that I'll say, those are the three ways that I use to try to get motivated to get shit done. Thinking about if it was the last time that I could see my dad and work together, legacy, and, you know, you got to just get the small shit done if you're going to make it long term. It's just the fucking reality and you got to be disciplined.

But last thing on how to use your time effectively, I think everybody, maybe not everybody, but my generation especially, young kids, 20s, teens, maybe early 30s, we all struggle with some screen time. And I do. I definitely struggle with screen time. I think it's something that is low-key kind of a problem. it's becoming more of a problem. In society, I think it's kind of a drug. The social media can kind of be a drug. Phone usage can be kind of a drug, and the dopamine is just constant.

So I would strongly suggest limiting your screen time because I've seen in myself, I found an app that allows me to block my apps and I cannot get into them at all for a set period of time. And that's what I needed because I don't have the willpower to not click into that app. I want to click into that app. But when it's grayed out and then I click on the app and it tells me, no, no, no,

you got four more hours and then you can get into this app. That has helped me tremendously to stay productive, stay focused on what I'm doing. So I recommend the app, Opal, O-P-A-L is what it's called. and it lets you know it blocks the apps that you want it to block for a set period of time and you can schedule it to do it every single day if you want. And so I block it pretty much all morning up until 4 o'clock and then I have to post social media content, give myself an hour and then I just block it again because there's no point of me getting on social media unless I'm using it for what we're doing.

And I'd rather stay productive. And I'm not saying you all got to go that extreme. but just really be mindful of that. If you're looking at your screen time on your phone and you're at six hours, okay, dude, you might have a little problem. You know, you might have something that you've got to work on. And so I recommend that app because that's helped me out big time. So that's the last thing I'll say about being effective with your time.

I'm glad you didn't name people in their 50s. That must mean that I'm... Well, I know. I said younger people, but I know there's... It's across the board. It's becoming a problem across the board in society. And, you know, not saying never get on your phone, but you got to be kind of mindful of it for sure.

All right. I got one for you. Yep. Kyle asks, if we have any suggestions for starting up a YouTube farm channel. I would say that there's so much you could say here, man. YouTube channel is you just got to start. you just got to take the jump and start because you're never you're going to talk yourself out of it a hundred times unless you just get in and start and that will teach you a lot also look at the other

farm creators look at them how are they pacing their videos how many times do they change jobs how many people are involved in the operation what's what's the quality look like what shots are they using what do people seem to like read the comments of these videos what do people like in these videos. Just going and looking what other people are doing and seeing how they're pacing their videos, all that stuff, seeing what the comments look like. You'll learn so much just watching other people do things. And obviously being mindful of how they're creating the content, not just consuming the content of, you know, them around the farm. Really be mindful of, okay, he switches the shot here. He switches people here, you know, this and that and that. Um, that's what I. That's what I

did. I really studied how that was happening, but you also want to be original. So you need to put your own spin on things. Just because one person does, you got to find that balance of taking what's working, but also putting your own spin on it. So be mindful of that. But really study that because right now in content, it's, it's, it's, you're not too late. You got to start, but you got to be good. You can't just be shitty. You want to strive to be good because there's a lot of content creators out there. that start and this is just the reality and they never they never really get better because they don't do the due diligence of really understanding how to make their videos better they just start posting and those people just stay small and they never grow if you want to grow a successful youtube channel

or successful any platform you're on you have got to do your due diligence of researching what works and adding your own spin on it and just getting better every single video or else you're going to small and it's not going to work. That's that's the, that's the reality of it. And the other thing that you have to understand is that it is, it is like everything. And we just talked about how you just do stuff every day and then eventually something happens that changes. Okay, well, YouTube is the same way in the fact that when you put out a video, it's not going to go viral.

I shouldn't say that because you could, something could happen in that video that everybody just is like, holy cow, you got to see this video, and it goes viral, and you're off to the races. That probably isn't going to happen. Hasn't happened for us.

Hasn't happened for us. We've been doing this shit for three years. Putting their videos out every week. And that's the thing. Consistency matters and getting better manners. And the only way you get better, is to do it, but then look at what you've done and say, what can I do better?

And look at other people and see what they're doing. You have to have, this is not investment advice, but you are making an investment that is going to pay dividends down the road. So in other words, the one thing that I always think is wonderful about YouTube is, when we get somebody that is a first time viewer of what we do, how many times we've gotten somebody that watch one video and then they send us a message and they say, I found your channel, I love it, I'm going back and watching all, I'm watching all the ones that came before it. I'm binging. That's the beauty of what it is, is as you grow and as you get people, every video that you have put out,

it's there, it's there forever to where that is going to pay you dividends down the road, you have this catalog of content. It doesn't die on YouTube. YouTube videos really don't die. And that's worse something, but you've got to put in the time. And it's not going to happen overnight. And understand it's work.

It's not, people want to glamorize being a creator. It is, it's work, boys and girls. It's work. And people that don't, people that have no idea,

and those people, that are not supportive you, they will be dismissive of you. And if I, I don't know how many people have said this to me, but a few that have seen a video or heard from somebody that has watched our stuff that doesn't, doesn't even watch it. And they say, oh, well, I should pick up a camera and do that. And when they do that, I say, yeah, you should. It's, God, it's the easiest thing we've ever done. Because it's not. It's one of the hardest things that we have to do. As far it's not physically hard sometimes it's physically hard but mentally it's one of the hardest things that we do and when people are dismissive and say like oh yeah I wish I could just shoot you know I could

just shoot videos and you know whatever you're like yep it's that easy just do it because it's not yeah you got to you got to put in the work you got to be consistent or else you're never going to grow that's the other thing you got to just post every week what you got to set what you're going to do if it's one video a week for ever that's what you're doing do it and then if you can ramp it up ramp it up but the more videos you put out the better you're going to get the better traction you're going to get the more the platforms are going to reward you last thing i'll say is youtube's a good starting platform but if you want to build a a really good brand you need to be on all platforms you need to be on facebook you need to be on instagram you need to be on tech talk and you need to try to promote your

youtube channel because ultimately youtube and i'd say also podcast is where your most loyal fan base is, your most loyal audiences, but you also got to get people to your YouTube channel. The organic reach on YouTube is not as great as it once was. So TikTok organic reach is great. Facebook organic reach is great. Organic reach is great right now. So trying to promote your YouTube channel through other platforms is also a really good way. But you got to start somewhere and that could get overwhelming. So just start out small, but just realize if you're not getting the traction you want and you know that your videos are good, you got to get on these other platforms.

And the last thing I'll say about that, why it's important is if YouTube ever went away and that was the only place that your brand lived on, you're fucked because now if that goes away, you're screwed and you lost your whole brand. So being on all platforms is important for that reason as well. But that's all I'll say. Okay, we will say rave.

I think rave, is it rave? Rave asks, I was wondering what you think works better. why dropping anhydrous or fertilizer on the planter for a smaller farm? Yep. So there again, this is one of those questions that I could, I could like instantly piss off almost everybody. So it really depends on your situation and how your operation runs.

I will just tell you from our, for our operation here, we do not use anhydrous and we never have and mostly because we have hog manure so we are only using um a little bit of nitrogen either with a we put it on with the planner and we're using that with single disc openers so two by two we don't use why drops although i will say this um when i first started no telling i was putting on um i was putting on um i was putting on uh 30 pounds of nitrogen with uh sulfur and i was doing that with single disc openers and then i was putting pop up in furrow with keaton seed firmers that had the tube in them uh i was not using wide drops but we I don't know, about three or four years ago, we went away from that.

And the only extra fertilizer that I put on is if we decide to side dress. That said, if I was in a situation that I didn't have hog manure, I definitely would be putting on a fertilizer with a plan or either doing single disc openers or probably doing wide drops and possibly doing in-furrow pop-up. I guess I'm not 100% sure on whether I would do that or not. But one way or another, I would be putting on fertilizer with that planner just to get it out there for when that plant first takes off. Our fertility has changed. We've talked about this before, but from the time that I really started making the decisions as to what we were going to do till today. We have changed so much in our operation.

You know, I grew up in a time where we broadcast all of the manure from our hog billings, and we didn't have enough manure to cover all the corn ground. We were planting corn in 36-inch rows, and we were planting probably populations of 24,000, 26,000, something like that, and we were doing no, we were doing no fertilizer with the planter, and we were mull board plowing. We tilled the shit out of everything. And today, we basically no-till, you know, we inject our manure so you can, you can argue whether or not we're tilling some doing that drag line. Our fertility is a lot higher, or organic matter is grown. we're using some biologics.

So we've just changed an awful lot of things. But to your question, I don't really know much about anhydrous in the fact that we've never used it. But I think that there's definitely value there if you're using the right mix of fertilizer with a planner. And there's so much to live. learn when it comes to soil fertility. And I definitely don't know squat. I feel like I get kind of

godsmacked every time that I go to a meeting and listen to somebody. I was listening to a guy the other day and he was talking about, he was talking about phosphorus. And he made the comment that phosphorus can only move in the soil like maybe a quarter of an inch a year. So basically, what he was saying is if you're broadcast and dry fertilizer, your phosphorus level at six inches may not be, it may be way higher than that in the top inch of your ground, especially if you're no-tilling, because it only moves a quarter of an inch a year.

And that really got me like bamboozled because I'm thinking of going to corn on corn on everything because we have this, we have this supply of manure that we've been given away for part of our acres. And to me, in my farm, it just makes sense to utilize that. So I'm thinking about going corn on corn. But we're no-telling. And I'm like, well, how much of the nutrients from that manure are trapped? Like, how do I get that fertility to go down?

I should get Mitchell Hora back on here. He can explain to me out of works. Also say we should try doing some cover crops, too. I mean, we've been thinking about doing, if we go the route of corn on corn, you know, I think it'd be good to have cover crops too with the manure. And I think that's where we're headed because we got it, we're looking at ways to try to get that soil opened up that that fertility can go down. So anyway.

And we're a smaller farm too. So we're trying to maximize every acre we can and make every dollar we can with what we got. So obviously corn would probably, you know, it's going to make you more money because there's more of it. But you got to also do what's best for the land. So, you know, you have to find that balance. But, yeah, cover crops, corn on corn, manure, we think that could be a good combination. Yeah, we do.

Anyway, that's the best answer I can give you on your question. So thanks for sending that in. For you, I have, and this is a good one. Alex asks, I am a maturing, oh, As I am maturing, I'm right with you. I'm trying to mature. I'm trying to mature some to one of these days I will. Mature, you say mature.

Yeah. You say mature or mature? Well, I think if you're mature, but if you're getting there, you're maturing. Maturing. Maturing. I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes my tongue is a little too big for my mouth.

I can't. Well, I have that problem. So here, I'll give you guys a little bit of a funny, funny, comment that I got. This is... When you start putting yourself out there, this is the kind of comments that you can get. I couldn't... You know, this was a deep...

This was a deep... You know, I've been... I usually get... We get a bunch of shit comments. And when you see them, you just... You kind of come numb to it. But sometimes there's one out there that hits you and you're like, geez, that person really must be...

That person must really be pissed off with how his life's going or her life's going right now. And I'm not going to say who it is. is, but this is what somebody said on our last podcast. Every episode, I become more convinced Sawyer has full-blown autism. I know, guys, that I fuck up my words sometimes, but gosh, I didn't think I'm, I don't think I'm that bad. But it's, this is a lot easier to watch and think that you can do it. And then when you get in the chair and actually start speaking on the mic, good luck. Because, you know, it ain't, it ain't the fucking easiest thing in the world. And I'm not a after what this guys. I am trying my hardest to get better and I think I have gotten better,

but have some grace on me and have some grace on dad too, because we are just farmers that picked up the camera and started recording and got this barn cleaned out and started talking into microphones. So I'm not claiming I'm a good public speaker because I know I'm not, but I'm trying to get better. So thanks for that, I guess. I'll just put that on my shoulder. Can you count cards? I can. You like Rain Man? I can a little bit. Take you to the casino.

You're good at poker. Clean up. If I, if I, I guess if I had, I don't, you know, I don't know. I, I'd. I'd try that out. I would have thought maybe he would have said Tourette's because sometimes I stutter, stutter, stutter, but like autism, huh. I feel like I'm kind of lucky in the fact that I'm, I'm old enough that people kind of

leave me alone. They just feel sorry for me. Yeah. One, they see me. If you watch the, if you watch the video version and you see me, people are like, oh, I think you're just the favorite. That poor bastard. People just love you.

Well, they, you know, they respect your elder. And they look at me as a young kid and they go, fuck that kid. That fucking kid. Yeah. I don't know. But yeah, I just got to put that on the shoulder. Every shit comment you get, you got to use it as fire. So thanks for that.

I appreciate it. Okay. I'll try my best to get better. I'll get back to this. So Alex says, I have noticed I do not handle stress well. Stress is associated with all farms and businesses. And I understand. understand that. I would like to hear your thoughts on this as many young people have an incredible

passion for farming, but the stress can tear them apart. I feel there are ways of handling stress and improving your own tolerance. Is it something that comes with time as your management skills progress? Where does a young person begin on the path to improving stress tolerance? Is this something you two have dealt with before and how do you handle it? And is this something a person has to come terms with and just decide they're not going to have their own business. Wow. Yeah, that's a good, that's a really good question. And I would say yes to it comes with time. You get your stress tolerance definitely gets better over time. I just saw a clip of, I don't quote me on this. I think it's the mayor of Miami. And he owns a billion dollar

business and he's also the mayor of Miami. Could be wrong on the city. Could be totally. wrong, but I know he's the mayor or some political official in the state of Florida. And somebody asked him, what's more stressful, running or what's harder running a billion business or running being the CEO of a major city? And he said, obviously, the major city. And, you know, he kind of asked him, how do you handle the stress? And he said, he went to his doctor a few weeks back and, you know, they did blood test on him. And his cortisol levels were low as shit. And he shit and the doctor was just like how the hell do you do all that you do and your your stress level is down here because cortisol is related to your stress how much stress is on your body in

your mind and he just said to the doctor he said you when you've been doing what i've been doing for so long and have gone through periods where you're stressed out of your mind you start to get calloused you know your your stress tolerance gets calloused and you just don't get stressed out as much as you used to. And I think that's a huge thing because, you know, I definitely was one of those people. I think it's just something that you go through when you're young. You stress about every little thing. You stress about dumb shit. You just over-stress and overthink your self-out. But there are ways I think that you can help with stress. I mean, obviously, you really just got to try to, I think, confined. I think, confined

in people and confining in people that make you feel better about the thing that you're stressing about is really helpful. I do that a lot with my therapist here to work when I'm stressing about stuff or I feel down about a business idea or the content's not working or, you know, you get on yourself and I confine in my dad and I'm lucky to have my dad in this. He always makes me feel better about it. He always makes me feel like you're just, you're overthinking it. Look how far you've come, you're going to figure it out, and you give me, you light my fire again. You make me feel good about my situation again. And finding somebody like that, I think is just huge. It's awesome to have that. And I'm very fortunate and lucky to have that. Unless I'm the one that's stressing you,

because I'm just chewing your ass. Yeah. Yeah. That happens sometimes. But usually I just throw it back at you if you're doing that to me. Yeah, I think that's a, that's a good trait that are. our family has gotten rolled down from generation to generation. So when I read this, so my first thought was I was a salesman for, I worked for a company for a long time, selling hog buildings. And that's a very stressful position. It's a very rewarding, sales is great because you kind of build your own destiny. It's the closest thing I think to own in your own business without actually owning your own

business because you're responsible at the end of the day. You build your own destiny. And, you know, every year you'd get to the end of the year and you'd feel really good about where you were. And then my boss would call me and say, you know, what's, what do you got for prospects for the next year? And you'd be like, oh, fuck. Because everything you did, everything that you built, everything that you, you did, that all was in the past, you got to start over every year. And that was stressful. But if I go back to when I was a child, and you know, you probably couldn't, you probably couldn't do this today. Well, I don't know. It is what it is. My dad was a military guy, and I'm sure that in his time, he endured some ass-chewans.

that were probably pretty unbelievable. And let's face it, if you were sitting in the cockpit of a fighter plane somewhere over Germany and you had somebody trying to end your life shoot you down, pretty stressful. And when you got out of that, nothing probably felt anywhere near as stressful as that.

So perfect example of stress tolerance. He went through some insanely stressful shit and continue. He probably got back and was like nothing compares to this. Yeah, and nothing. So when I would get upset, he would say to me, well, what are you going to do about it?

What are you going to do about it? And usually as a kid, you know, somebody was picking on you or some girl wouldn't talk to you or whatever it was, you know, to you, it was a really big deal. He would say, well, what are you going to do about it? and I would sniffle along and say, well, nothing, there's nothing you could do about it.

And he'd say, well, quit fucking worrying about it then and let's get back to work. And then there were times, you know, that something went wrong and maybe I didn't do something right and I got an ass chewing. And I just said this the other day. In my time as being a salesman, there was never a time that I had somebody, a customer, or somebody that worked on the crew or a dirt contractor or whatever. whatever, that was pissed off that, you know, I was a salesman. So ultimately, I was like the, I was the job site supervisor, even though we had those people. But, you know, the buck kind of stopped with me.

And I had my ass chewed many times, which for a lot of people would have been really stressful. But for me, I could honestly say that nobody probably ever chewed on me as hard as my dad did. And I was always like, hmm, not bad. Not bad. And it didn't really affect it. I mean, it did, but it didn't. But the most stress that I got, I think, was over how am I going to, how am I going to do better than I did last year? How am I going to sell more than I did last year or do as good as I did last year? How am I going to provide for my family? You know, going through raising pigs in the 90s, all of those things today, I don't feel like I really get I get a little stress sometimes when stuff goes wrong, but it's the same thing.

Yeah, it's very rare that dad is ever stressed. And my mom is a complete opposite. My mother stresses about a lot of shit. And there's dad where he doesn't stress about much of anything. And I'm leading more toward, I'm more like you in that fact, I think, because there is shit that comes in your life. that comes in your business or comes in your farming operation that, yes, that is stressful. And that, I don't think you're going to get away from that, not, you know, that's going to be

stressful no matter what. But then going and stressing about other shit, like the level of, the level of stress that people I think have is they'll stress about everything, personally, business, farm, relationships. Some of that shit, So there's just so much little shit that people stress about, but you got to just, you got to really try to, I don't know, I just don't sweat the small shit. Really. I really try not to sweat the small shit because if you are always constantly under stress, it's going to make those stressful situations inside your business and your farm even worse on you because you're already stressing about everything else on top of that. And it's just going to be harder to deal with it. But I would also say, stress is an emotion. and stress is not necessarily a bad thing. No.

Stress puts pressure on you, but pressure is almost, it can be a good thing. Either makes or breaks you. And when you're going to be running a business, you've got to perform. When you're fucking Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady, you don't think they're stressed out in a game.

You don't think that they've been under pressure you know, they do, but they don't dwindle at the idea of being under pressure and being stressed. They perform because they have to perform. And you just have to kind of change your relationship with stress. It's going to come in your life no matter what. There's always going to be shit that comes in your life. And I think as you get older and the more you put yourself in stressful situations, the less stressed you'll be, but you'll still be a little bit stressed. And don't always look at that as a negative. That's not always a negative.

That might be the fire that you need to get the shit done that you've got to get done. Because I don't know, to me, there's not much else that motivates me more than stress and pressure. Right. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what else,

what else? I don't know what else really gets me going. besides pressure and stress. Happiness doesn't, you know, happiness is one of those emotions that's great, but does that push you to be better and put you in stressful situations? Because ultimately, I think the best comes out of yourself

and out of your business when you're put under stress. Because you learn what you need to learn and you gain confidence and you realize that you can perform when shits when you're backs up against the wall so you know one of the this is kind of like i think i feel like a lot of people say this but i and i've said it i haven't learned a whole lot from everything in my life that went just off perfectly most everything that i've learned important lessons i've learned is from all the stuff that went wrong and that's directly

related to stress i mean when stuff goes wrong stressful but you learn a lot from it One thing I will say that will help you and learn how to compartmentalize your stress. In other words, if you have a stressful day on the farm and there's something that's broke or there's something that's wrong and it's got to be fixed or, whatever it is, but you can only do so much in a day's time. And when you walk in that door to go home, it does not do anyone in your family any good to stress them out over what they obviously can't do anything about. So you need to learn how to check those emotions at the door. And, you know, I'm going to do what I can do today, and then I'm going to go home, and I'm going to be as good a husband as I can be in a good as father as I can be. And then tomorrow when I get up, I may leave the house

early and go take care, go work on whatever I got to work on. But while I'm not doing that, there's no use of being stressed about it. And that's not the easiest thing to do, but I've learned, gosh, when I think back to all the stuff that I lost sleep about that at the end of the day, you know, in the middle of night you wake up and you think about something, it's such a big deal. People, problems with customers that I had to deal with, and I would angst about actually dealing with them, and then I would go meet with them, and it was like no big deal. Like, it was a 20-minute conversation, problem was resolved, wasn't always resolved the way I wanted it

to be, but it got resolved. And then I would leave and I would be, or I, you know, would go about my dad. I was like, geez, why did I get so stressed out about that? Usually the reality is not nearly as bad as the, as the picture you paint your head. Yeah, I would agree with that too. Yeah, I don't know. I hope this answers your question. We both have dealt with stress. I think that you have to, I think also, and I would relate to you. I mean, you, you didn't probably ask you me as much as Grandpa asked you to you. But getting your ass-chewed, getting, being in stressful situations early in your life is, it's foundational. It helps you with stress. It calluses you. The more you are under stress, the more pressure and stress you go under, you become less affected by it. And you almost

become more like, I need to take action. I need to be driven by it. I mean, honestly, I want to ask you, what drives you forward more than, you know, to get something done than stress? It's like, because I mean, fuck, I angst about all the stuff we got to do. Like, back to the list, I'm making that list because if I know I don't make that list and I don't know what I got to do, I'm going to get stressed. and I'm either going to have to, I'm going to have to do that shit regardless, right? And even looking at that list, it can kind of stress me out,

overwhelm me a little bit, but you can only do so much in a day. You can only chip away at it so much a day. Yeah. And you almost have to come, you almost have to come to terms with using stress to help you perform, but also realizing that

you got to leave, you got to leave your emotions at the door. Like you can't, you can only control what you can control, and you got to control the controllables, and you can only do so much in a day. Yeah. And there's a lot. I can do a whole episode about this.

Yeah, you could. Because what we're talking about is what's wrong with youth sports in America? What's wrong with not letting kids fail in school? what's wrong with not putting kids in stressful situations yeah i mean jobs where nobody gets fired and and nobody gets told that they fucked up you everything we do and and i i am the product of this i'm the youngest of three sons and i was the most spoiled i was the most spoiled of all of them and I had to learn the lessons that I had to learn on my own off this farm were lessons that I should have learned on it,

but I was treated, I was treated more softly, as hard as that is to believe, I was treated more softly than my brothers were, and I had to learn those lessons on my own. And it is, we are in times today where men and people, that are, maybe it's not the man, maybe you are a single mother, your life is stressful because people are relying on you. It is, it is a lot of what drives me is the wolves at the door. Like, nobody's coming. I'll give you the Mel Robsons. If you own your own business, or if you are the head of your family, and you have people that are reliance, on you, nobody's coming. It is on your shoulders to perform, to take care of that family,

to provide for those people. And guess what? That is fucking stressful. But you perform because of it. Yeah. You have you, it's either, you either fucking crumble or you perform. Right. And today, we coddle people and we, we, for some reason, we want to tell everybody that you can crumble. It's fine. Crumble. Well, no it's not i'm sorry it's not i mean it sucks but that's how you end up in situations where worlds fall apart is when you have a majority of people that cannot take responsibility for their actions be willing to sacrifice for those that depend on them and to go towards a hard situation instead of running away from a hard situation.

All of that is stress. And you have, it's a muscle. It is. The end of the day, it's a muscle. You got to exercise that muscle. And it's harder for some people than others, but. I think that was really good. I agree.

I mean, you can't run away from it. It is part of life. It is, it's an emotion. And you asked, your last question was, is this something a person has to? to come to terms with and not have their own business. You could. I mean, you're going to have to come to terms with it that if you're going to try to be a own your own farming business or own your own business, you're going to be more stressed probably than the average individual.

But the return on choosing that life could be better than what most people get out of life. That's what you also got to look at. I would say that you can, dude, you can, you can you can still start your business. You can still be in farming. This belief that, oh, I can't do this if I'm going to be constantly stressed out. Like, there's, I feel like every, there's a lot of CEOs out there and a lot of successful people out there that are stressed. A lot of successful athletes, a lot of successful artists, a lot of successful farmers are stressed.

But you just got to learn to use it. You got to manage it and you got to learn to use it to push you forward and to push performance out of yourself. Well, let me say one thing and then we can move on. So you also, today and this day and age, one of the great things is there are people that can help you. Because there's all kinds of stuff that stress me, but you want to know what stresses me more than anything else. Bookkeeping. I am a terrible, I am not that well organized. I'm probably the most well-organized I am today that I've ever been, but that's still not very good.

I have an accounting company that does my taxes. They get my bank statements. They balance my books. And I just started doing that within the last two years. I have fought that my whole life. Pigs don't stress me. The weather doesn't stress me. Crops don't stress me. Soyer doesn't. stress me as much as bookkeeping. So I've offloaded it. And I don't feel, I don't feel weak, I don't feel inferior. I feel like I finally whiz the hell up and said, okay, what is the most stressful thing that you have in your business that you're doing and you're doing a poor job at bookkeeping. And there's a cost there? 100%. There's a cost. But one, the quality of the records that I have is the best they've ever been. And I can do so many other things better not worrying about that aspect of our

business. And it lets us plan and it lets us go faster on the other things we're trying to do. Now, that might not be your thing. It might be something else. But find in your business, in your life, find the one thing that is you are the worst at and stresses you the most and get help for that thing. One day, you're negotiating with suppliers. The next, you're installing a shelf in the back room. Running a business means moving in many directions all the time. TD's new small business banking accounts are built for how your business moves.

It's how we're making banking more human. That's a great point. 100% great point. You did, that's a good point. I 100% agree with that. And when you're running a business too, yeah, get help. But guys, a business is you hire employees to do the shit that exactly what you said. The shit that stresses you out the most or the shit you're not the best at,

you can hire employees. You can hire help. Like, that's, but that's the thing. Here's the thing with that. if you are not stressed in the first place, you will never... So the result of that is your business will run better than it's ever run before

because you hired something out that you weren't doing well that stressed the shit out of you. Right? And now your business is running better. If you are never stressing about that, you would have never done that and our books would have never been as good as they are right now. Yes.

So in a way, the stress helped you improve our farming business because you were stressed. Yes. There you go. It starts with stress. When I was trying to create all the content, edit all the content, then edit all the short form content to post on other platforms, I was fucking stressed. And I was letting myself down and I wasn't getting it all done.

And I got pissed off about it and got beat myself up. But then I wised up. We started making a little bit of money with, you know, monetization on YouTube. and I said, you know what, I'm going to hire some people to help me out with this. And I was able to hire some editors. Now I don't have that stress anymore. And I feel like our media business is running better than it ever has before. And it started with stress.

You have to be willing to accept stress and use it, again, to perform. and the end result could ultimately help your business out in a huge way. If you were never stressing about it, you would have never come up with the solution to solve the problem. So it's inevitable. But it's important. That stress part is important because we did it. We did it ourselves. We learned how to do it ourselves and we did it ourselves.

And it was very stressful. And we made the decision that, we needed to do what we were actually good at, which was create the content. And even if it meant that the little bit of money that we were making, that we didn't take that money for ourselves, we turned around and we invested it back in the company. And the example I'm giving you is you can apply that to anything. I think that you need to embrace the suck,

and you need to learn how to do things in your business, things in your life that you aren't necessarily good at. And that stress you out. That stress you out. But you need to do it. Then if you were able to offload that, offload it. But what's great about that is you know,

at that point you know what's involved and you know what it takes to do it. And so you can weigh the value of what somebody is charging you to do it. because you've done it yourself. If you just start out and say, oh, I don't want to do that and you just pay them, somebody's going to take advantage of you,

regardless of whatever it is, because if you haven't put in the time and invested the stress of doing it and learning it yourself, then how are you going to know whether or not you're getting value for what you're paying somebody to do, whatever it is? So that stress is important. but at the end of the day

everybody has something that they just out of all the things that are stressful within their business within their lives there's that one thing that man that's what keeps you up at night and if you can take that thing and even if you don't offload all of it if it's something that you get somebody

to help you with that thing that's worth it because that brings down the whole level throughout your whole life. So you can't be scared of it at the end of the day. You got to take it head on, man, and get help with what stresses you out, but you also just got to accept

it's the reality of life and it's the reality of business. It truly is, whatever business you're in. But last thing and then we'll be done is find something that doesn't stress you out. Find something that helps relieve your stress. For me, that's the gym. I can go to the gym, I can put my headphones in, I can listen to some damn good music,

I can take my pre-work out, and I can go pump some fucking iron and not have to think about shit besides focusing on what I'm doing. And that helps me out a lot. That raises my endorphins. I feel better about myself. I feel better about my situation. I feel good after I'm done working out. and I feel less stressed.

Exercise is a great way to release, to let go with some stress. But that might be fishing for you. That might be hunting for you. That might be you going into your garage and start tinkering on something. I don't know what it is. Putting a puzzle together. But there's got to be something that you do that you just tone everything out. Disconnect.

Disconnect. And you can just relax because you got to have something in your life. everybody's got to have something because I'm not saying be stressed 24-7 and that's going to help you perform you don't want to do that you got to have some time that you let off the gas pedal and you just you just be and then you can go back to stressing later but that's the last thing that I'll say is you know what we should do hmm we should get like a hundred and twenty five dollars a piece I'm game and at the beginning of each episode

I give you $125 and then at the end you give me $125 because what we have here this is like therapy for me talking it out yeah as much as if you guys enjoy this podcast

I just want you to know because I thought about this as I got up here and I was waiting for Sawyer of all the things we do and the content that we create, the thing that I love the most is shooting this podcast. Because it is really just, I mean, dependent, you know, we have guests and we have subjects, but at the end of the day, the conversations that we have are basically just conversations that you and I have anyway. Like all the stuff we've talked about today, you and I have had this conversation. Not all at once, but off and on.

And this, this is good. Yeah. So, thank you, Dr. Whistler. Yeah, thank you, Dr. Whistler. Well, he should do that. We should get a jar. Doctor, doctor, doctor. Should get a jar and just hand each other at the end.

Yeah, I like that idea. But yeah, I also just feel, yeah, I was stressed when I first started doing this. Yeah. I was obviously nervous when you interview your first guest and I was stressed. Yeah. But look, now it's, it's, yeah, it's a muscle. You got to work the damn muscle. And I'll just say this. You know what? Get out of your comfort zone. At the end of the day, working for myself, the worst day, I've said this, I think I've said this so many times. my worst day working for myself is better than just about any day working for somebody else because it is stressful but building building your own life can't beat it can't beat it

yeah there's no cap so that's what i'm saying to you you can say i can't handle running a business because it's too stressful well but you don't realize the other side of if your business is successful, you set your life up the way you want it, you have no cap. You can go as far as you want to go with that business. And if you take on a little bit more stress, you could have the life that you ideally want if your business is successful or your farming business is successful. So I personally will take the stress for building my own life the way I want it and not being capped out by somebody on how much I make a year or how much how much free time I get to spend. I get it aside. Yes, there's more stress. But the return

of that stress is so much better than working for somebody else. Period. Period. Period. If this mic wasn't attached, shut this arm, I drop it. Just shut this fucker off. That'll conclude it. All right, guys. We got a hawk. We got to. of Hawk T-shirts yet. Hawk T-shirts. Oh, yeah. If you guys want to buy some merch. If you guys want to buy some merch,

we'll have it in the link in the description if you're watching on YouTube or the show notes if you're listed on Spotify or Apple. Thank you so much for supporting and pay the fee guys, share it with your friends, family, coworkers, whoever.

And we'll submit your questions at Barnetog Show at gmail.com for the next Q&A episode. Without further ado, we'll see you guys here back next week for another episode.