Barn Talk - Barn Talk Q&A: Whiskey, Work, and the Wisdom of the Farm

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

Welcome to Barn Talk What happens at the barn, Stays in the barn, But not today! We’re letting it all out! Today’s episode is a Barn Talk Q&A. We're gonna answer your questions!  Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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barn talk to save 10% off your next order. Thank you guys so much. We appreciate you. We love you. Now let's get into the episode. 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. These are the questions that you guys have submitted through Barn Talk Show at gmail.com. That's where you can email us your questions for these kinds of episodes. We got a good lineup here, mostly to do with ag. It's kind of how it rolls on our Q&A episodes, but we got, we're getting close to the new year, so we're going to talk about our goals, some of the stuff we've accomplished, maybe light a fire under your asses. I don't know. We'll see where we go with it. But before we get into it,

you guys know the drill. Share the show. The more that you guys do that, the more of this show grows, the better guests we can get on. The more content we can make, and it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. We appreciate every single one of you guys that do that, whether it's telling your neighbor, whether it's telling somebody at a bar, telling somebody that you know in person or sharing it online, sending it through text, whatever, everything helps. You can also leave a review on Spotify or Apple. We're up to 2,000 five-star reviews on Spotify, and we are at almost, we're getting close to a thousand on Apple Podcasts. You can also follow us on YouTube and watch us there for the video version of the podcast.

Check us out on TikTok, check us out on Instagram. We're on all platforms at Barn Talk or Barn Talk show. So, yeah, Dad, how are you feeling? Feeling good. Optimistic. Yeah. New year, new opportunities. Forget about all the trash that I didn't do very well last year.

You know, don't look back. Just look forward. Yeah, when is the new year? We're actually not in January yet at the time we're recording this, but... Monday. Monday's the new year, huh? Monday's New Year's Eve, I think. New Year's Eve.

No, Sunday's New Year's Eve. Monday's New Year's Day. Yeah. So by the time the fine folks get this. Yep, it'll be a new year. So... So... So...

We're going to get you fired up for it. I'm going to do a market update today. We're going to have a whiskey minute today. I'm actually pretty excited for the whiskey minute. because the bottle I have, it's like, it's good. Top shelf? Huh? Is it top shelf? No, but it's cousins to top shelf.

And it's really interesting. I'll get into some whiskey geekdom. So they better listen or watch the episode all the way through. All the way to the end, because that's when the good stuff is. And, yeah, we'll do a market update. I'm all amped up. I've got my adult heroin drink from, from triple M nutrition.

Blueberry. There's no commodity market for, I'm sorry, Blue Raspberry. There's no commodity market for Blue Raspberry. It's the greatest flavor that God never invented. I don't know who came up with the idea of Blue Raspberry, but I love it. You think people actually think you're drinking heroin,

or are you going to explain? No, it's just, it's like, it's one of these, what are they? These have popped up everywhere. They're like a nutrition store that throws in caffeine and good supplements for you to get, You have all different kinds of drinks. Collagen in it, you can get all kinds.

You can't actually get heroin in. It probably just has a lot of caffeine in it. It's like a pre, I think it's like pre-workout in it. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I already worked out for the day, but they're just, they're pretty good. I probably have one more often than I should. I try to limit myself to once a week, but we're not quite sure.

Sometimes you need a kick. Yeah, I thought today, you know, you'd want the best of me. So I got one. and you're getting it now. You're getting it now. I'm going to give you the market update. Fresh, fresh market update, courtesy of Katz Grain in Washington, Iowa. I'm thankful that our good friend, John Griner, at Katz Grain, did not get tackled to the ground by Ron DeSantis's security detail because he brought us a little Christmas present while we were shooting that podcast. And he showed up with a brown paper bag that was stapled shut.

And the security guys kind of gave him the hairy eyeball. made him leave it outside so but all it was in it was some captain morgan and some eggnog yeah so no bombs nothing like that was all good all good anyway he has good intentions he did have john has good intentions for all of you out there that needs somebody to uh to either tell you what to do with your marketing program or dream up a new marketing program or just hell just tell him what you're doing and tell him john i just want you to tell me that i'm doing the right thing he can do that there and they can do as little four a year as much, cats grain. So corn 477 on the board, 469 local.

Apparently all the hog feeders got the bins about full because there's not really a hot, no hot grain bids around our neck of the woods. Cedar Rapids, 485, and that's for December corn, so you better get it in there because the week's about done. beans 1317 1295 at the river 1338 on the other side of the river bean mill 394 a ton wheat has popped back up again 633 hogs trash still trash can't stay over 70 dollars 69 30 30 for the i think that's the december contract too that might be the jean i'm not sure on that i didn't write it down Weiner pigs still like 30 bucks.

So your average sal unit costs, you know, $42, $45 to make a weiner pig. And the market's about 30, so no bueno. Cattle 170, feeder cattle 223. Oil, $73. And OPEC got together and they agreed to cut a million barrels of oil. And I don't think it matters because it hasn't really affected the market that much. And the Houthi, the Houthi. rebels from Yemen are still firing missiles in the Suez Canal, and everybody thought that was really

going to drive up oil prices. It hasn't really seemed to the U.S. and its coalition of everybody else is keeping the canal open. I think freight prices, though, might very well go up because something like, I want to say 70% of the trade that goes between Asia and Europe goes through the Suez Canal, And if anybody's firing off anything in that part of the world, the insurance companies won't insure the ships. So a lot of them are going around the horn, the horn of good hope in South Africa. And so it adds about 20% to the travel time.

Anyway, we'll see how that all plays out. But oil, 73 bucks. Bitcoin, $42,500. We're still in crypto spring. Yeah, I think Raul's on to something like that. Yep, absolutely. Ethereum, $2,372, Tesla, $259, gold, $2,06, silver, $22. Not that it matters.

One interesting business thing that happened this last week, Adobe, who makes the wonderful, wonderful software that helps us edit the podcast that makes us sound semi-professional. because this wouldn't happen without Adobe Premiere. God, you plug more people than, Jesus, we should be getting some dollars from your plug in here. Well, Adobe should be paying us, but they ain't got any money because they were going to try to buy this company called Figma, which Figma, I want to say Figma wasn't public.

I think they were trying to go public and then Adobe offered them $20 billion to buy it. and that deal all fell apart last week. But kudos to Figma because as part of the deal, they made part of the deal be that if the deal fell apart, Adobe had to pay them a billion dollars. And Adobe agreed to that. So they get a billion dollars just for basically putting themselves up for sale

and having it fall through. So I like a deal like that. Yeah, that's finding free money. I think there's a lot of, I think all this banking turmoil that we saw last year and just a tightening in the amount of venture capital out there has really hurt the M&A business and the venture capital business. So there's two other deals that fell apart last week that we're not going to talk about. but a lot of people have been talking that 24 is going to be a piss poor year as far as companies going public and companies buying other things because there's a lack of liquidity in the venture capital market. So that's something to watch.

Hey, I think that's all I got. Yeah, well, that was a good one. I'm not saying Adobe isn't good and we shouldn't plug them because it's pretty much final cut or Adobe Premiere. And we use Adobe Premiere. And the reason we chose Adobe Premiere and why we learned, why we use that to edit all our stuff is there's more YouTube tutorials out there on Adobe Premiere than there are final cut. So if you're looking to learn how to edit, that's my recommendation, Adobe Premiere. But no, no money coming to Barn Talk for Adobe. You're just, you're just very kind today. Well, yeah, it's the Christmas spirit, New Year spirit. They don't know us anything. We don't know them anything, but hey, their shit works. I learned to edit.

Yep. I've probably forgot most of it now. God bless Cat because she does it all. And if I had to go back to doing it, I'd probably... The podcast probably wouldn't get out every week like it does now. Just the fact that I could learn to do it is a testimony to how good the tutorials are and your patience. Yep, there you go. 100%. There you go. Well, I think we're going to get into it, guys. But before we get into like the questions that you guys submitted we just wanted to kind of go over our last episode we appreciate every single one of you guys that have said you know it's awesome that you guys got to santis on congratulations but we also got a lot of people that are giving us a bunch of flack and a lot of shit for it and haters are going to hate no matter who you have on or what you do

but we just want to make it known to you guys we're not endorsing any one candidate and it, like having DeSantis on the show wasn't us saying that we're for DeSantis 100%. We reached out to his team months ago. They got back to us, and we just want to have a conversation with them. And we're open to doing that with any candidate on either side. We are open to it. If they want to come to Southeast Iowa, sit in this chair across from us, and have a conversation about how they're going to turn things around for this country,

we want to give them a platform to do it and talk to the American people. So we're not, you know, we've seen the common people telling us that we're sellouts. We didn't get anything from that besides having a presidential candidate come here and chop it up with us in the barn. And it was an absolute honor. It was awesome. And it's all a testament to you guys giving us your support and sharing the show and get the word out. Because if we didn't have that credibility, that opportunity probably would have not come. So just wanted to throw that out there.

You know, we're open to anybody coming on. the show if we can just get them on here and get them down to southeast Iowa so yeah only one disclaimer uh to come on the show if you are if you are a candidate you do have to be able to make your way up the spiral staircase so i'm just saying and and this isn't i'm not bagging on any particular uh person running for office but if you are so feeble or if you get lost easily you know like if you it's a pretty big open area or fall asleep easily and there are farm animals and And, you know, if you have trouble wandering off or you can't climb a spiral staircase, probably won't.

Probably can't. Yeah, we probably can't get you on. Other than that, if you're generally healthy and have your wits about you, you are more than welcome to come on the podcast. I like that tie in. Yeah, that's a good disclaimer. We definitely don't want any liabilities on our part. No.

Because Lord knows we are, we're actually going to talk about insurance today. And don't bother thinking you're going to get a, going to get a settlement. out of us because we ain't got anything anyway. Yeah. Yeah, I was really surprised. I made the comment to Sawyer that, you know, when we have a, when we have a podcast that we kind of talk about, a hot button issue, like an ag, like if we're talking about,

a lot of times when we've talked about fertility or no-till or equipment or this or that, you know, you get people that messages and like, you guys are totally wrong and you're doing it wrong and you're crazy and this and that and that's all fine. But holy shit, political people, Twitter, they are cutthroat, and if you are not 100% drinking the Kool-Aid for whoever they're about, they are going to let you have it.

And I was like, damn, boys, you know, we just sat down and had a conversation with the man. We're not endorsing him. And I'd say that, yeah, Neither one of us are, neither one of us are diehard Ron DeSantis people, but we just wanted to have him on. And I'll be honest, I thought I did a great job. I thought that he was prepared and he had good answers. And I think a lot of what he said I could agree with. I think the problems that I had with him before he was on, I think I probably still have those, I still have those issues. But I think, I think there's a hell of a lot worse people out there

that we could end up with as president, but there may be some better ones. That's my exact thoughts as well. I don't give a shit as long as the person get the job done. And I feel like he's got a pretty good track record of what he's done in Florida. He seems like he's an executor of getting stuff done

rather than talking and being polarizing. And I think he's more of an action taker. And I don't know what, it looked like if you got elected president, but for what he's done, it seems like he could do some shit if he did to get elected president. But I think, I think the Santis, Trump, or Vivek, either one of those guys, I think one might have a better impact on the state of America than the, than others. But either one of those guys got it, got it. I think we'd get in a better position than where we're at right now. And so that's, that's my two cents. And I'd love to

have a Vic or Trump on the show. I mean, if we got Trump on the show, that'd be insane. But I'd love to talk to either one of those guys and ask them same kind of things and see what their responses are. But yeah, no doubt. It's just insane to think that we've come to this point. And that, I mean, when we started this podcast, the reason we named it, we didn't name it, this will do farm podcast or Whistler Family Farm podcast or whatever is because, yeah, we are as farmers guys we like talking about farming it's what we do every day but we felt like we had an opportunity to if we did call it barn talk we're not putting ourselves inside of a box of just being able to talk about egg it's shot in a barn yes we're farmers but we can talk about more than

just farming and so i'm so glad of that we did that because i don't think we would have ever had ronda santis on the show yeah or marshal yonda on the show if we were narrowed ourselves in that box. So I want to have a lot more interesting guess on from different industries. So it's not just going to be ag. But anyway, that's all that we'll say about it. One last observation, anybody that saw the picture of the three of us standing outside the barn,

Sawyer, me, and Ron DeSantis, I thought it was very funny the people that are just going on about him being short and wearing platform boots. Because if you see that picture, if there's anyone in that picture that needs platform shoes, it's this guy. Because I look like a circus midget standing next to you. And I'm like, well, I don't know. Ron might be short, but I look like I'm a 12-year-old kid standing out there. So anyway, put me in touch with whoever is making those fancy black platform. boots. What else? Should we talk about, you want to do some questions or do you want to talk about

observations? I think we do, we do questions and then we'll do observations at the end. Okay. People want some value. We've been running for 17 minutes here. People are probably getting pissed. Shut the fuck up, Soaring Tor, get into it. So we hit, or do we hit the, the DeSantis question, or do you want to touch on that that Caden sent us? What candidate are we backing in 2024? Yeah. And why? Yep. Yeah. And this is back to people who are going to give you shit no matter what.

So I'm for Trump. I'll just say it. I'm for Trump. I'm not afraid to say it. I think Trump, to me, it's like we've talked about on this podcast before. If you are against the establishment and the establishment is doing everything that they can to literally not have you run because they're fucking afraid that you're going to go against their agenda. destroy everything that they're trying to do, which if you look around, it's destroying America and what we stand for. Yeah, I want that guy to go fight. And especially with the tracker that he has,

yeah, you might not like what comes out of his fucking mouth, but does he get the job done and were we in a better spot than where we are today? That's the questions you need to ask yourself. I don't care. I don't care what comes out of his mouth. He was, he had respect not only from people in this country, but from foreign leaders, people respected him and he got shit done and the country was thriving and you can't take that away from him. And so I think we need to get back to that. And I think he's already been in there. He knows the opposition and he's had time to reflect and know how to come up with a game plan. And I think he can turn shit around real quick because he's done it before. Yeah. Do I think he can run for eight years? No.

That's where a candidate like DeSantis might be a better option because he could run for eight years, I think. And I think we could get a lot of shit changed in eight years and like really change and stay changed if he ran for eight years. But yeah, I'll also say Vivek, and I know this isn't very popular with a bunch of people. And some people think they can't, you know, they look at him and they're like, he came out of nowhere. Can you trust him? Can you not? Some people still say that. but what he says on the debate stage,

what he's doing on the campaign trail, what he's coming out of his mouth, yeah, he's polarizing. He's kind of a little bit like Trump and the fact. He's not afraid to say what needs to be said and what an American people are actually thinking at home. And that,

the shit that's coming out of his mouth is also anti-establishment. Which I look at and I go, that yields trust for me. Because when I look at you and you're saying, that everybody's thinking, but nobody in the big media or nobody in politics or nobody in the Congress wants to say or talk about and wants to lie to us about. And you say that, that makes me feel

like you're in touch with how people are actually, what they're actually thinking about at home. And you're really trying to fight for the American people, not get your pockets line with cash or whatever the hell, whatever the hell else they're trying to grease you with. And so I lean towards candidates that are going against establishment and are not afraid to voice that opinion of going against establishment. Because I think ultimately, my opinion, I think the establishment at this point

really is taking us to a bad place. And sometimes I question, do they have the American people's best interest in mind? Yep. I don't think I can add a lot to that. I mean, I think I feel the same way. I think the question that I asked DeSantis about suburban voters, mostly, I think it's mostly suburban women that are probably

the biggest hurdle to Trump getting reelected. However, I think the difference is this time over last time, I think even they realize that things have changed dramatically in their own lives since the last election. The last election, everything was going really, really well, and they were really tired of listening to his divisive crap come out of his mouth, and they didn't like his tone, and they didn't like all that, and they voted against him. I think this time, those same people that voted against him,

a lot of them, are in a lot worse shape economically than what they were, or maybe they're not in any worse shape economically. However, their feeling of security and optimism and what they think the future is, I feel like is in a lot worse spot than what it was four years ago, three years ago. And I think that's going to make a difference. And I'm with you. I have no, if you've listened to us for any amount of time, I think you probably know that I'm one of the,

those people that I do not trust the government. I don't like politicians. I think that they are all severely out of touch with their constituents, and I don't think we're told the truth, and I think they're heavily manipulated by money and lining their own pockets and taking care of their own, and the favors that they have promised people to get to where they are. And that's on both sides of the aisle. And I don't, so the candidate that I think has absolutely emerged in my mind that is the worst, and I feel bad about it because when Nikki Haley was at the UN, I really liked her, but I feel like today she's 100% bought and paid for by the establishment.

Military Industrial Compliance. She is funded by Black Rock. She is in bed with Boeing. She is, you cannot trust anything she tells you from, I think she's very smart when it comes to a world from foreign policy. However, that foreign policy is 100% molded by her experience and by who's lining her pockets. I don't trust her at all. I trust DeSantis more than I trust her, but I trust Trump, I trust Trump more than,

than I trust any of them, and that's who I'll vote for if given the chance. If I don't get the chance to vote for Trump, that's a powdered keg in its own. If we go to, so Maine just announced, or it came out that Maine has now kicked Trump out of the primary, and that'll end up going to the Supreme Court. And I don't think, I don't think any of these liberal states will be allowed to keep him off the ballot. I don't think. But if they do, that's a whole new can of worms, worms for this country. I don't know where that goes. But if I don't get the chance to vote for him,

I would vote for Vivek or for DeSantis before I would vote for the rest of them. And Chris Christie, I don't even know why is Chris Christie still in the race? Is he still in the race? I don't even know if he's still in it or not. I don't know, but yeah, he needs to get out. He's not. But Nikki Haley, I mean, she's 100% bought and paid for. So I guess that's where we stand.

Yeah, like I said, either of those candidates, Vic DeSantis Trump, I'd like Trump out of all of them, but I think no matter what, those three, if one of them gets elected, we can change the tide. We can turn things around. And I also just want to throw out there, you know, I know that we might have some conservative views and kind of what we were talking about when people were giving us hate about having DeSantis on this podcast.

Yes, most of our views are probably conservative, but like, I'm not all 100% Republican. I'm not all 100% liberal. I'm not all 100% love everything that comes out of Trump's mouth. I'm not all against everything that comes out of DeSantis's mouth or whoever, right? And when you look around the landscape of social media, it seems like everybody's all or nothing. You're either all somebody or all one party or nothing. And that's just bullshit. I'm a pro freedom person. I want America to keep what is the freedom that we've been able to enjoy for so long and keep that intact. So our kids, my kids can enjoy that, you know, and we can enjoy that.

And I just, I just want to keep this country intact and keep it to continue to be a great nation. And I just feel like where we're going, it's going against that. And so I hate the two-party system, but at the end of the day, it's the choice that we have. And you almost have to choose the lesser of two evils, you know, essentially. And I think right now in our best interests as Americans, it just feels like the Republican Party is that, you know. But just want to throw that out there. I know a lot of times we talk a lot about, you know, we have conservative views, but we're not 100% Republican conservative to the absolute max. I mean, there's some stuff that you can say, well, you're kind of, dad likes Tesla, right?

You know, like there's shit that, you know, that makes us, makes us all us, right? And it's okay to be, have a few topics on the left, have a few topics on the right. I think that's most people, right? Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I think a good example is that you, in that bit with DeSantis, he talked about the EV and you know he's he's kind of he kind of made the mention these like anti eve and we're you know we're pretty I think we all are in our family I mean uh Sawyer's brother's got a Tesla Sawyer's girlfriend's got a Tesla um and I'm I love Tesla and the other thing I thought that was

interesting is we asked him a little bit about um the carbon the whole carbon market and he he took that to ESG scores and all that. Well, you know, we're starting a project where we're basically sequestering carbon. We're using it to separate our manure and that's for a whole other day. But it's so interesting because we are definitely not one candidate people, but we're not even one party people. I'd say we're pro-freedom above everything else and we're pro-business. Like, are my goal in life, or what, I don't know if my goal in life, but what I love about this country is you can find ways that whatever you do, you're not capped. You're not, you're not stuck where somebody's telling you, well, that's it. You're going to make this much. You're going to, this is, you can't do any better than this.

And we don't want that for anybody. We think that if you want to work, if you want to work hard enough, And you want to learn, you should be able to go as far as you can take yourself. And, I mean, I guess that's why we're probably conservative is because we believe more in personal responsibility, but also personal opportunity. Mm-hmm. So. A thousand percent. I'd be on my bus.

Yeah. Personal opportunity, personal responsibility. There you go. Discipline. Tork for mayor. Tork for mayor. All right. Oh.

Oh, we'll throw it. We'll do an ad question. So Thomas emailed us and he asked if we had any thoughts on additional ideas or ventures that we should explore as cattle producers to grow their operation and increase revenue, or do you have any ideas that could help him grow his freezer beef business? Do you know anything about that? Yeah. I know what you mean. I know a little bit.

I don't know a lot, but I know a little bit because we're going down that road a little bit here. I, it's, I mean, the obvious answer is, well, just create your own market for your beef, right? And it sounds like you're kind of already starting to do that. And I think that is ultimately the route I would go if I was you. I'd build a brand. I would market. I would try to get your own market established because playing the commodity game, as we all know, as farmers, is, it's getting harder and harder to play that game. And I think for the, for the future, it's going to, it's going to be, it's just going to get harder. And so if you can find a way to create your own market and market your own product, you can be ahead of the competition and hopefully,

hopefully stay in that ag business, stay, keep your family farm alive. And, you know, as you guys know, we're trying to do something similar. So, I mean, there's all kinds of products, you know, beef tallow people are getting into you know liver and all this shit that you could you could try marketing but i think ultimately you you grow an animal and you have an opportunity to sell something that not a lot of people get the opportunity to sell which is beef and i think that um yeah you just really got you got to you got to find your your what makes you different and you have to constantly be learning and evolving on how you can differentiate yourself, how you can market, how you can get more eyeballs on your product.

I mean, just grind social media. Look, I mean, just you got to research because what you don't know that you don't know is what's going to hurt you the most. Look around. Look at other meat businesses. Look at other direct-to-consumer beef businesses. look at other ranches that are doing this. Look at the website.

Look what makes them different. What are they doing that's, you know, like compare shit? Because that's probably the thing that I do more than anything is I am constantly looking not only in our own industry for ideas on how to make things better in our own stuff. I'm also looking outside of our industry. I'm looking into fitness. I'm looking at all in every brand that I can get my eyes on and see what should. Shopify app are they used are they using Shopify what's their checkout page looks like what's their

add-to-cart page look like uh you know all that stuff will give you so many ideas and it will allow you to see who's doing shit at a high level and who's not and figure out how you can do shit at a high level because as you do that research and look around the landscape there's a lot of people that do this shit and they do it at just to be honest with you at a mediocre level. They, they like the idea of doing the direct to consumer beef business and or meat business in general. In general. And they, they, they, and they, but you go look at the website and product pictures aren't great. Website doesn't look great. Doesn't work. The conversion, the conversion, how fast it takes somebody to add it to the cart, check out all that can do they,

do they do add-ons, do they do upsells, do they, I mean, all that stuff matters. And you, you, you can really see who's out, who's doing the shit on a high level and who's not. And so you really have to immerse yourself in that and really just look around and just absorb as much information and feedback as you possibly can to make your stuff better. It's not only the website. It's how you can fulfill orders faster. It's how can you market your beef and get more eyeballs on it. I mean, there's a million things that you can look and go down rabbit holes for, but all of it matters. And all of it will pay off if you just continue to look for those answers. I mean, that's what I've done and it's gotten, it's worked well so far. And I'm, I'm not saying we do shit at an extraordinarily

high level, but like I feel like we've got a good website and I feel like our conversion rate's pretty good and we're getting better at the fulfillment center every time that we pack orders. And I'm just getting more efficient and I'm learning these new apps and stuff to help me run the beef business or the meat business better and it's just it's just a constant learning curve and a constant seeking of information to get better and I guess that's my two cents on how you can run your beef business better and I really don't know I mean I don't know any more ideas for you that you could that has directly to do with cattle uh you know to increase revenue for your operation besides that and I think ultimately the long term play of creating your own market

that singular goal is going to pay dividends if you can make it work. So I would just say focus on making that side of your operation the best it possibly can be and get better at every level you possibly can on that business. And hopefully in the next five to 10 years, you have created your own market and you don't have to rely heavily on these packers to make a living and you can make a little bit more money for yourself so long answer but yeah well i like that i think one thing that he may not be thinking about and i i think a lot of people that kind of do direct to consumer maybe don't put enough emphasis on is it's not enough it is not enough to go through the hurdles of getting your beef processed and getting it labeled and getting it packaged and getting it to

where you can ship it. I feel like that's a lot because there's no, nobody's going to help you do that. You have to figure that all out on your own. But having the product available, I feel like that's, even if it's the best product, even if it is the best beef, beef, than anybody can get. I don't feel like that's, that's, that's like not even half the battle because you have to get people that want to buy your product over somebody else's product or just, or just take the convenience of going to the grocery store and buying it there. So your brand, and you may not have a brand, and you may not have to go to the extent that we, that we have, here and the fact that we kind of have multiple brands. You know, we're doing the podcast,

we're doing the farm channel, and we're doing the direct-to-meat business, and they all kind of feed together. But you've got to find your why, and you've got to document somewhat. Like, you've got to do better than having a website where it goes there, and there's a picture of you standing in the, standing in the feed lot with a feed bucket, saying, these are our cats. and we do a really good job taking care of them. People want more than that. But I think that's something that even people that have been doing this now for a while

probably maybe don't realize as much as they should is the competition's coming. Well, I would say the competition of business is so, it is at the highest level it's ever been because it's never been easier to give. into business no matter what business it is. And so you have got, if you're going to do a business, you can't half asset. I mean, I don't know where you're trying to go with it, but if you're trying to make it so you can be not relying on packing plants and you can market all your beef through

your own network and your own market so you can make a really good living, you have got, I mean, you have got to try your absolute hardest and go 100% at that. goal because every there are so many other people trying to do it and there's so many other people that are doing it. I don't know, they're finding information left and right and new stuff comes out every day and new tools come out every day and the ones that get on it and learn it and get better and are trying to do it every single day are the ones that are going to win and the ones that don't might quit and might not work out. They might not get it to the point that they want to get it to. And so I would say product matters.

It's got to be a good product because that's, you don't want to be only marketing your product through advertising, and that's the only way you get customers because you're just going to have to spend money constantly to get customers. You want some kind of referrals. So you have to have a good product. The only way you get referrals is with a good product. But you also have to have, like dad said, a brand.

You have to get eyeballs on your product for people to buy it to even get the product out the door. And so there's a million ways to do that. There's a million ways to get your product better. And there's a million ways to make all the techy shit on your website and all that stuff better. But it's just you have to be willing to commit yourself to it and go all in on it. Like this idea of doing this as a side hustle, I just feel like the meat space is. is so competitive. And, you know, all the ranchers and all the farms that are trying to do this, it's really competitive.

And so you have got to put in more effort than the competition to really make something of yourself and really create a brand that stands the test of time. And so that's my two cents. I know that was kind of a lot. We'll ramble there, but I hope that helps. and I really don't have any other ideas for you outside of that. Hey guys, if you're a livestock producer, you've got manure. Our partner has your solution.

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and it's starting to smell like opportunity. Give them a shout at Livestockwater and Energy.com and watch our journey with them. We've partnered with these guys. Check out our YouTube channel. This will do Farm and follow the journey there. Now let's get back to it. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit.

Carl asks, who do you have your hog barns insured with? We just got dropped by our insurance company after 15 years. I have neighbors that are in the same boat. What the hell's going on? Yes, this, this is crazy. So we're with you because we just got dropped. We, about, what, about a month and a half ago. So my insurance man who I've had, I don't know,

since not long after I built my first hog building, I think, so 10 years probably, 10 and 12 years. and and I can just say because it's it's secure is who we had our insurance with and they're out of Wisconsin and great company and when we started with them they had I'd say a lot better coverage because they spent the time to understand our industry and understand the buildings and you know great premium all that and we've never had a claim with them of any size I think the only claim I've ever had with them was when I tried to burn my garage down on a 4th of July weekend with my barbecue grill. But that's for another story. Anyway, they randomly just

dropped us and we're switching. And I can't honestly tell you. I can't remember who we're going with. But we are. We've got insurance through somebody that we're going to start first of January. But I did not realize how big of an issue this is. So, what this all comes back to is within the hog industry there has been some massive losses over the last five years so if you're listening to us somewhere in the Midwest you know the derachio that came through Iowa a few years ago and then we had a bunch of straight line wins even this year come through the state. But then on top of that, there's been some really large units, sal units, units that either had tornadoes or fires. And the companies that were insuring them

have taken huge losses. And because of the weather in the upper Midwest, insurance rates have gone up and continue to go up and my guy told me that basically we're to the point here in Iowa that if you know if we have another year or two where we have weather patterns or straight line winds tornadoes deraio whatever our insurance could double from where it is and my understanding is if you go just south of us if you go to Missouri there's a lot of coverage down there like you might not even be able to get coverage on certain kinds of buildings but um i was talking to a friend of mine that owns his own semi and he trucks he trucks hogs he hauls hogs every day he goes to missouri and picks up wieners and hauls him up here to uh nurseries in iowa and then goes back

he does that every day i think five days a week and he was with a regional insurance company here in Iowa, they dropped him. They dropped him and a whole bunch of guys that do the same thing he does for the same integrator he does, they all got dropped. And the reason for that was because this insurance company was a mutual insurance company. And the way their system worked, each office, they were required to cover the first, I want to say $80,000 of any claim that they had, and then anything on top of that, it was backstopped by the parent company, by the mutual, the co-op-like insurance. Okay, well, they were from over west of us, and when the Doracho came, there was one there was two different offices and each one of those offices had over a hundred

claims because they insured so many ag businesses that went over $80,000 so they had to pay the first $80,000 and I think that number's right it could have been $50,000 but it sticks in my mind that was like $80,000 okay well you do the math on that not very many local insurance offices have anywhere near that amount of collateral bond, whatever, so it rolled back up to the parent company. And then they had multiple, they're heavily concentrated within the Midwest and a lot in Iowa. It nearly bankrupted them. So they had to go to their reinsurer, which that's like some big company like Nationwide or Chubb or somebody like,

somebody like that. And it all just rolls downhill. Well, my insurance company on my hog buildings, they're the same way. They were heavily exposed to the hog industry, and their loss has been so great, they just said, we're done. They didn't care, like, they didn't rank anybody. They didn't say, okay, well, you haven't had a claim, so we're going to keep you. They just said, we're getting out. we're not going to insurer any hog buildings whether you got a sal unit you got a finisher whether it's a 600 whether it's a 10,000 we don't care we're out and so now you're down to maybe there's maybe there's six different players left that will actually insure uh hog buildings so one i already know my rates are going up and two if you have a claim uh you probably better not turn it in unless it's just an

catastrophe because if you turn it in, you're probably going to get dropped. They might pay it, but then they're probably going to drop you. And I think this is just a small window into what's going on across the nation. I've heard a lot of stories of people that own vacation homes in Florida or people that own homes in Florida that's their primary residence. and they're going without like hurricane insurance because one, they can't get it or two, they can't afford it. They're just to the point where, you know, they can't get it. And, you know, full disclaimer, ag insurance is, ag insurance is damn expensive. We're a very small, you know, grain farming operation, but just to ensure our size of operation,

we spend over $20,000 a year on insurance. And I'm sure, you know, that's a number. When I talk to somebody that, you know, lives in town and has a house, if I tell them, you know, that's what my insurance bill is, their eyes bulge a little bit. But, you know, I know guys that, so I used to work for a large integrator, you want to see an insurance premium. Try insuring like 50 or 60,000 sows in all the buildings and all the trucks

and the feed mill. all the semis, you're talking millions of dollars to insure that. And this insurance thing is just crazy. So I don't know if that gave you any answers, but what's going on is the insurance companies aren't making any money. And the risk, they're just getting out of the markets that they think have the biggest opportunity to have a loss, and they just don't want to insure them anymore. so I don't know I've been trying to get Sawyer to come up with a way to make you know a million dollars that we could just be self-insured but still working on that plan still working on that plan still working on that I'll let you know once I get there though all right I'll be sure you'll be

the first call I'll make so we're on topic of insurance and this really isn't a question but it's kind of a clarification because we kind of messed this one up on our last Q&A somebody asked us about specialty crops. And we said that you couldn't get any crop insurance on that. And knowing us, we should have, we should have known that. But we don't have any much experience with that. But we were wrong. And you can get insurance, crop insurance on those specialty crops.

And they are classified as category C crops and are insurable under a written policy. Do you want to go more in depth on that since you're on the topic? So, yeah, somebody asked us about, you know, getting in diversifying. and we just said that for us, we don't have any experience with that. And if you're going to like try to start from scratch, you put all that money out there, you know, we can ensure a certain level on our corn and beans where if we want to hedge our input costs, you pay something for it, but you can get crop insurance. And I was like, I don't think you can get crop insurance on blueberries or whatever.

And this guy, he actually is a crop. adjuster from out west and he let me know that you can. What it comes down to is you have to go to your crop insurance provider and they can write you what they call a written policy, which is basically a custom policy where they reach out to somebody that in some area of the country, excuse me, that does do those crops and they write it specifically for what you're doing and generally it's not necessarily a lot more expensive. It might be a little more expensive than what somebody, you know, if you live somewhere out west that you're in an area that they grow potatoes all the time. Um, crop insurance out there for those crops is probably standard like it is here for us growing corn and soybeans.

but if I wanted to grow some specialty potato, I could probably get insurance for it under one of those written policies. It would be a custom policy, and it'd probably be comparable to what they're doing, although it could be a little bit more expensive because maybe the weather conditions here aren't ideal compared to where they are there. But we just wanted to clarify that because, you know,

ignorance is bliss, and we don't have any experience with it. and um we fuck up too sometimes it was probably a deal where torque was running off of the mouth and just said oh yeah you can't do that yeah but you can so we make everybody makes mistakes everybody does sometimes uh twice everybody has those days so we're not perfect by any means but so uh i think i think that's our i think that's our last our last one um i think what i wanted to know is now is you can probably answer this better for me better than me just well obviously there were lessons that i had to learn in 23 but i think because of everything that you started what is your as you look back what is some of the the best or hardest or whatever lessons that you learned in

23 yeah since we're on coming since we are into the new year we we wanted to do some reflecting and some goal setting and some other stuff before we wrap up the show. But I would say we've said it once on the show before. Biggest lesson is don't be afraid to ask. There are people out there that can help you. And having hard conversations, yes, is uncomfortable. But I think we tend to get in our heads a lot about, hard conversations and asking people for something or asking guidance or asking for

consulting call or whatever. But you would be surprised at the amount of people that actually are willing to give you knowledge and want to see you win. And that's, that's something I had to learn because, you know, it's just, I think you build that up. And especially when you're online and you're on social media, you look at just all the cynical people out there in the world. Sometimes it's, it's hard to escape that reality and like have the gumption. to ask people for something if you need their help or guidance on something. I mean, I had some amazing people that helped me on my journey to start in this direct consumer meat business.

You know, other business owners that are in the space, the people from Milo Locker giving me a chance and answering questions for me. And my box lady out of New York City, she answering questions on boxes and liners and just asking the right questions. and as I went down that path of talking to more people and asking more questions and looking stupid, I realize you just gain more confidence to just not being afraid to ask questions. And that's the only way you're going to learn. I mean, you're going to learn from failing and other people helping you out and teaching you

and guiding you. And hopefully you don't repeat the same mistakes that they made. And it kind of speeds up your learning curve a little bit. So that would definitely be my number one lesson learned. I would also just say, I'm learning pretty easy. I'm learning pretty quickly that balance is one of those things that everybody likes to portray on social media, that everything's great and you're ripped and your family's all great and your business is all great and your work-life balance is all great.

And it's just all great. But what I'm coming to realize is, you're always going to feel imbalanced in one area or another inside your life. You know, whether it be you're doing really good at home and you have a family and you feel like you're there with them and enjoying life and you feel like you're doing pretty good inside your own business or at your career, but your physique and your fitness goals are really lacking. Or you're not cleaning your spaces up very good around the house and your wife's getting on your ass for it. You know, those are the kind of things that

I'm quickly realizing you can't, you can't do it all, man. You can't be Superman. And it's okay to come to terms with that. And I think going through seasons of life where you change up your approach to life needs to be more normalized. Like when we were getting the meat business started, I did not spend as much time with Kat as I probably wanted to. And she probably didn't, she probably didn't, she probably was let she was letting me know hey you know like we need to go do some more stuff because like i know you're really busy she's very understanding and she's supported me through the everything but i'm just saying like it's very easy to get caught up in the idea of oh gosh that guy has it all that guy looks so great that guy he's so balanced everything's perfect in his life but i'm just going to

tell you that's that's bunch of bullshit you're always going to be in balance and you're always going to have to have compromises and you're going to have to have seasons of life where you have to focus a lot on your business or a lot in your career and you might be lacking at home. But then you might have to switch that up halfway through the year or a quarter way through the year and say, you know what, I've been giving a lot of time to my business. I need to let off the gas pedal a little bit and I need to be a better dad or a better, better father. Or maybe it's, you know, years at a time. Like, it's personal for whoever's design or your life. I mean, you design those seasons, but this idea that you're going to have it balanced 100% of the time,

I just think, is bullshit. It's an implication of just social media, I think. So I'm quickly realizing that as well that. And the last thing I would say is, and I've said it before, the game of entrepreneurship is really glamorized nowadays, but you are going to quickly realize, you're really going to have to want it if you really want to have your own business because it demands a fuckload of you it demands a lot and you have got to be willing to get up every day and be accountable to

yourself and to give you everything you got to that business um to make it work and you know it's it's it's not as easy as everybody wants to tell you what it is and if if there are people out there telling you that it's so easy and get rich quick, they haven't really built anything. They haven't built something super, very meaningful, I would say. You know, guys that have built real shit, real companies that are lasting and that have a big impact on people in society as a whole, they'll tell you it's fucking hard. It's hard. It's going to require everything that you got, but it's very rewarding.

And I would 1,000% agree with that. And I'm no expert at all at business. I am learning shit every day. I have so much to learn, so much to accomplish, so much more to go after. But just in my first year, not even a full first year of doing it, I can tell you it requires a lot. And you have to be willing to take the beating that it requires. And that's the price you have to pay to get the life that all these guys portray on

social media that entrepreneurship is, right? That's the price you have to pay. And you can't have it both ways. You either are going to pay the price of sacrifice and bettering yourself or going all in in your business or you're going to pay the sacrifice of not doing that and not ending up where you quote unquote want to be, right? So those are my lessons. What are your lessons of 23. It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart. Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise. Two days only.

Tuesday, April 28th and Wednesday, April 29th. Open your PC optimum app to get your coupon. Well, so you and I are kind of in two different spots in life. That's what makes it good, though. That's what makes this podcast special. So Sawyer is, he's got his foot. firmly planted on the gas. And he is going, and I love it.

It exhausts me sometimes. And then I, any time given the chance, I'm trying to coast, because what I see is, my dad used to say this, we would have these we would talk about something would come up or just random and we would start talking about you know his childhood and growing up and then that would end up leading to a lot of times we talked about the war and when he was flying and he genuinely loved the time that he spent in the Air Force, but he would tell, you know, a story about this or that,

and then he would look at me, and he would say to me that that all seems kind of like a dream when he thinks back, and then he would say, many times, he would say to me, lifetime is not very long, so you better enjoy each part of it.

And so I have really started to try to focus on enjoying what I'm doing. And when we're all stressed out, which we get stressed out a lot, because some days there's so much shit going on that, you know, Sawyer's got to be at farmer grade because the ice guy's coming or the box guy's coming or, he's got to meet this or that or he's got a call about this or talk to this, whoever. And, you know, the pigs all have to get chored. And the pigs are sick. And you're thinking, okay, well, I'm going to go over there today. And who knows what I'm going to find. And it's hard to get fired up for that.

And then my other son calls and somebody trashed one of the apartments at, you know, one of the fourplexes they have. And can we come bring the trade? and help out with that and you just want to like like literally you got to stop and breathe and i used to get really stressed out about that and i still sometimes do but it's just a day and i'm just thankful that i get to do what i do with family and even though sometimes we get on each other's nerves i think about all the time that I spent working for somebody else, which I'm thankful that I was able to do that because in that time of my life, I really needed that job to provide for my family. But I think about

that today. And there's a little, there's a little tinge of regret. And I hate to say that because I shouldn't regret it because I learned so much from what I was doing. But when I think about what we've done in just the last, if I think about what we've done in the last year, sometimes I think to myself, self, man, think of how much shit we could have gotten done if we would have started this sooner, like if we would have done. But you can't do that because it all happened at the time.

It should have happened. and happens for a reason yeah and you got to enjoy it you really got to find a way to enjoy every day and um 23 to me was just like really eye-opening and the last thing i'll say about it is if i had to if i had to pick one thing that i really kind of took to heart it was this idea that in our minds we see people that run companies on, you know, a national scale or a world scale, but we also see people that run companies in our own little town or do whatever. And we kind of put those people on a pedestal. And we think that, you know, man, they're just, they are executing and they are so smart and they are so good.

and you know what dealing with the people that we've dealt with in 23 and all the stuff that we're doing it's just like the DeSantis campaign those people were great people every one of them that we dealt with a great person but when you meet them you're they're they're just regular people they're just regular people and they're all dealing with the exact same crap that we are as in trying to figure out that balance. They all have that same, they all have that same tension as to like, you know, well, what should, you know, like, you can almost feel it. Um, you know, they all have a job, but they're torn like, is this what I should be doing? Am I doing this right? They all have the same inner, inner talk that we have. Doesn't matter how big the numbers are that they're running

through whatever they're doing, they are just like you and me. And when you realize that, it makes it, it really makes it easier. Like when I have, when I go to email somebody or I go to call somebody from some, you know, whatever, whether it's a PR firm or whether it's a, whether it's somebody's political campaign, I don't get near as stressed out as what I did, you know, even two years ago, because you just realize. that we're all in this deal together and we're all trying to figure it out and you just yeah everybody's got shit everybody does but it's also very powerful when you realize that that really successful people are no different than most of us i mean there are exceptions there are the Elon musks of the world

that are fucking geniuses right out the womb yeah right there's lebron james that is a god-gifted amazing athlete right Patrick Mahomes can throw a football like nobody else, Aaron Rogers, whatever. But most people, most successful people, if you sit down and you talk to them, most of them are regular people. And that's powerful because every single one of you, every single one of us has that same power in us

if you just go after it and go get it. I mean, that's that, and I've said as this before on the show, that is the most powerful thing that social media has ever given me personally is it has shown me what is truly possible what the average person can achieve if they just result you know just push through and grind it out and don't quit you know and learn from your mistakes like that can get you really far because like i am not i will be the first to tell you and you can ask anybody that if you ever come across somebody that knows me, I'm not the smartest cat.

I'm not the smartest guy in the room. I'm not, I don't, I've never had that title. I never will have that title. And that's okay. Like, but I'm,

I'm going to go after resilient. I'm going to go after it relentlessly because I've seen that that is, that's a recipe for success for most people. So, uh, yeah, that's good. I agree with that.

What are your, what are your goals for 24? You got any goals? Yep. My goal for 24 is get all the shit done that I didn't get done in 23. It's a good one. It's a real good one. No, so I think my number one goal for 24 is to separate manure. For the farm, for me personally on this farm, I want to get the manure separation deal figured out.

and I want to have a pile of dry manure sitting there come fall. I do not want a drag line manure fall of 24. So that's going to be, when we finally start construction, and we're very close on starting it, it's like any new technology, there's just so much stuff that has to be figured out, even on the ground floor, to get going. and I think for all of us that's involved in it, it's taken longer than what we thought,

but it's going to be so worth it in the end. I believe it will be. I think it could change our industry. I think it could really change the conversation in production agriculture when it comes to both cattle and hogs and dairy. So that's very important to me. That's what I'm, that's what I really want to work on. and then on top of that just keep trying to do better at this because you may not all realize this so you know we're you guys consume this content and i think there's this idea that

we create this stuff and you consume it and we our goal is to give you value but I really feel like what we get out of it is so much greater because the amount of things that we've learned and the opportunities that we've had and the people that we've met that make us better because of Barn Talk podcast. I don't think you can't put a price on it. So we're going to keep working on the barn. We're going to keep working on trying to get better as far as being organized and consistent and just put out a good product. I think those are the the two things that I want to work on the most is Barn Talk podcast and dry manure. I like it. How about you? Those are on my list as well. It's funny. Me and Kat actually had our coffee this

morning. I got a big whiteboard just sitting in my sitting in the office at our house and we went and listed out our goals today for both of us individually and then us together. and I would agree on the on the manure separation definitely want to get that done it's going to be a big focus for us this year or for yeah this year and barn talk you know same deal I want to I want to make the experience here for guests better the experience for you guys better get better guests on get bigger guests on and just provide as much value as we possibly can but also you know I feel like you have to have to have to a metric to see to see the success so i'd love to get our youtube i mean shit we grew to 180 9000 subscribers on youtube shit i'd say we could try to hit double that go for 350 maybe in 2024 uh and i'd also love to get our listenership per episode to 50k listens per episode i thought i think that would be awesome um just yeah because we love hearing from you guys and we love share this sharing this out with you guys and we love seeing the seeing it grow and so i feel like you

got to have metrics to measure the success on so those are my metrics of success for barn talk but honestly if we just keep making things better i think that will come so i and if we didn't hit it it's not the end of the world to me because i love doing it so we're and i don't plan on stopping it so that's that's the thing um and then for this will do farm want to continue to grow all that stuff keep showing our farmers to everybody. And for Farmer Grade, I'd love to, I'd love to 2x our revenue, 3x our revenue in 2024. We are only in business for seven months in 2023. And I'm pretty happy with where we got the first year, but this next year I'd really like to double or triple that. And I'd love to get my first, first hire, hire on our first team member at Farmer

grade and help lighten the load on my shoulders a little bit. But, just keep just keep pushing that out and providing a quality product to people is is a big thing for me too so and I love to go to the gym and have a good physique and have a good life and you know really strive for that balance you know that everybody likes to portray but uh I know that it's going to come there's going to be seasons this year that we're just going to have to go through so we'll get there hey yeah I'll share this since you talked about the gym uh for all of you out there that are of you know 52 and everybody in my family was worried about me because I don't go to the doctor much. I just for no, not any reason. I'm not scared to go on the doctor. Just, I don't, well, for one reason,

every time I go to the doctor, there's always a bunch of sick people there and I hate being there because I'm like, I try to hold my breath as long as I can. But anyway, you know, it's like, oh, you need to go to the doctor, you need to go to the doctor. So I went to the doctor and checked out really well. My prostate is nice and smooth. I was just going to say, I think you're just afraid. of that finger going up your ass. Nice and smooth. And so me and my family doctor now, we have a special head nod when we see each other

because we had a moment together. And that was great. But I'm in good shape other than my blood pressure is a little too high. And not bad, but it's a little high. So I'm going to try to lose about 30 pounds. I'm a little bit lighter than I was. I never had a scale.

I still don't have a scale. I just go off of the notches on my belly. and my belt, I'm on the furthest notch that I've been on the belts that I own. I don't know how old they are, but I need to lose, I could lose 30 pounds pretty easy. And I think if I lose that, that'll take care of my blood pressure. And everybody, my family had really good ideas as to what should be. And I don't know, none of them gave me, none of them gave me bourbon as, I mean, I feel like any time I have a nice glass of bourbon or an old-fashioned. My blood pressure just drops, but none of them suggested that. So we'll see whether or not all that works. But yeah, that's your health update for TORC in 2023. We'll check back

next year in 24 and tell you whether I accomplished all that. Yeah. I would say for any of you, the last thing on the goals is any of you out there, if you got something that you want to strive for this year. Start today. Yeah. Start today. Go after it because nobody's coming and the best time to start is today. And don't try to start a million habits all at once.

Try to start one thing, get that habit, then start another habit once you get that one down for at least, I don't know. Don't try to, because I get in this state where I try to do all these things. all at once and I never end up, I don't stay consistent with any of them. So I found that doing one thing, sticking to that thing, getting that establishes a habit, then moving on and maybe trying to add another habit onto your tool belt is a better way of going about it. But I would just say, nobody's coming to save you, nobody's coming to help you on your journey of what you want to accomplish in this life. It's all on your shoulders. It's your responsibility. And the only way

you're going to change things for the better is in yourself find it in yourself so um just just go after it the information's out there all the successful people out there most successful people out there are just like you and i they're no different you got the power in you to do whatever you want to set your mind to and i know that's cheesy and that's corny or whatever but it's truth i mean there's limitations obviously you can't not all of us can be LeBron James, but if you want to make a little bit more money, you want to look a little better in the mirror when you're looking at yourself, you want to be smarter, you can do all those things every day, a little bit, every day, and you can achieve those things. So it's all in you, you just got to go get it.

And don't wait another year. Don't get to this time next year and be like, shit, I wish I would have done that. Another year goes by, and you don't feel fulfilled, you don't feel like you accomplish anything. That's a shitty feeling. So just start and go after it. And one day at a time, man. One day at a time. Yep. And when you mess up, get up the next day and start over,

don't be one of these people that. So there's some of us that are all or nothing, you know, they're like, okay, I'm going to do this diet or I'm going to get on the treadmill or I'm going to, whatever, I'm going to read so many pages. And then you miss one day and you're like, nope, done. You're an all or nothing kind of person. And don't let that stop you because I've fallen off the horse on so many things that I've done. But this year I feel better.

I feel more than ever that I've done a better job of getting back on the horse and not just pouting and feeling sorry for myself. And you really got to figure out what, like what works for you. So like one thing for me is I'm like a visual person. So something that I love is having like. I love having a calendar. Every one of the hog buildings has a calendar in it. I have a big ass calendar in my basement. And I like to have everything laid out that I've got to do that I know I have to do.

And then my goals, I like to have that. So it's like staring me in the face. And that works for me. Some people don't need that. Some people, they internalize it. They're good. I'm not one of those people. But when I see it, I go,

yeah I better get it back on that and you just got to find what works for you and to your point like just don't don't try to eat don't try to roll up that pizza and eat it in one chunk like you just got to take a little bit at a time and you know what you change one thing every day and go and then you add one more thing, you can accomplish a lot one day, you know, every day. You just try to do a little better than you did the day before. And if you screw up, start again. Start again, my friends. Start again. Yeah. Last thing before we get to the whiskey minute that I just wanted to say, I think we all know that 2024 is a big year in a lot of ways. But, It's an election year.

And so all I want to say is on your journey to greatness and going after what you want, there's going to be a lot of fucking distractions. I can almost guarantee you there's going to be a fuckload of distractions happening inside of our country. Sometimes it's probably going to feel like the sky's falling down because that's what happens in an election year. They want to tell us, they want to divide us as much as they possibly can, especially more in an election year than other years, I feel like. If it's anything like 2020, I feel like that's what it'll be this year. And it'll be worse. It'll probably be worse. So just prepare yourself for that. And you can control what you got to control and realize also that

the power is in our hands. And if we want to make the change, you got to go vote and you got to vote for the right candidate and you got to set the standard in your own community. This is a pivotal year for the American people and for this country. So really, really think about the decision you're going to make when it comes to election time and really, really make sure you're not just reading the headline of all the shit that's going to be coming out because there's going to be shit on either side that's going to get blown out of proportion or, I don't know. We just know that this, this, if it's saying anything like 2020,

it's going to be a fucking shit show and there's going to be a lot of shit going on. So just have some filters on. Don't be so blinded. Read into some stuff more. Do more research than the average person does just reading the headline and like really analyze shit because there's going to be a lot of stuff, I feel like. So that's just my prediction. That's just my opinion. But continue on your path of making yourself better.

But just realize this is a pivotal year, I feel like, for, for America. It's something else here now. Something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's the series Stephen King calls scary as hell. Everything here is impossible,

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From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. When we say do your own research, this is, if there's been a year to do your own research, do your own research because there's going to be so much crap thrown out there that you're going to hear about and this and that. You got to do your own digging and you got to know it for yourself. And yeah, just don't. You got to stay strong. Don't take everything at the surface level.

really know who's telling you what they're telling you and why and who's paying it yeah exactly run it through run it through analyze it run it through a filter don't just take everything that they say at face value really make sure that they're that if you believe what they're saying that you damn well figure out that that that's true or that's not so that doesn't i don't care who it is run it through a filter we got to do more of that shit so anyway all right last thing whiskey minute what do you got for us here we we have spent this entire episode trying to give people positive uplifting advice and now we're going to finish with bad habits so today on the whiskey minute i'm pretty excited for this i have a bottle of hirsch single barrel and what's really

awesome about this, so this is a little geeky. This is actually, what's in this bottle is mostly willet product. So if you're familiar with purple top willet, that is a very fine whiskey. That stuff is awesome. If you're ever somewhere that they have a bottle and they'll do you a poor and it's not outrageously expensive, I would recommend you get one because it's very good stuff. So, Hirsch is, and I really love this bottle because it has the age statement on it, it has the mash bill on it, and earlier versions of this, older versions, were 100% willet distillate. So they were barrels of willet that they sold and Hirsch bought them and they bottled them, which is very surprising because a bottle of willet will go well over 200,000.

dollars if you're like me and you live somewhere where you don't get an allocation of it you're buying it on the secondary market well you ain't going to buy it because it's just too damn expensive but nevertheless it was mostly what i'd say is reject purple top which still much better than a lot of the whiskey out there um but you have to be careful because on this bottle it says distilled in Bardstown, Kentucky. But you can pick up a bottle that looks just like this. This is the double-oaked. But you can pick up a bottle that says single barrel,

and when you look on the side, it says, distilled in Indiana. If it's distilled in Indiana, there's no Willett product in this. This is, what, GPC or something like that, a huge bourbon producer that's in Indiana. There's no Willet product in it. but this is 95% of it is eight years old and five percent's three years old the eight year old

stuff is will it the five year old the five percent that's that's something else but the older bottles were 100 percent will it but anyway just uh it's great that they put that age statement and the mash bill on it um but if you can find one of these bottles and i picked this bottle up for I think about 70 bucks, which that's a good price. That's a damn good price. So we're, and I haven't tried it. I've been saving it because I was like, when I found this, I was like, damn, I'm going to have that on the old barn talk. So I'm going to pour myself a glass. I'm not giving you any. Not giving me any. Do you want some? A little. I'll have a little. All right. You got to do a a little pour for me. How's that? Less. That's fine. All right.

So I'm pretty excited. I'd really like a bottle of purple top. I might get myself just a hair or more of that. I'm trying to hold this, not spill it, put the bottle back down. So it smells pretty good. Should we, cheers to Barn Talk. Cheers to Barn Talk. Cheers to the New Year.

Cheers to you, Kingpin. Cheers to you, El Conquistador. What do you think? I haven't had whiskey in a while. Sawyer's been pretty dry for quite a while. I'll tell you, I really like it. It's pretty good.

It definitely has slow burn. Well, it's got a, it's for, I can't remember how many proof this is. It wasn't, it wasn't like stinging me right off the bat, but it's that warmth coming down, running down my chest. It's 130 proof.

So, I mean, it's got a little zing to it. Yeah. But I would say that if you taste something like this, to me, it tastes different than most of what I, well, pretty much anything that I drink, this actually has a little bit of, I don't have a very refined palate. I love these guys that do these whiskey TikToks and all that that'll tell you, oh, I have this and that note and all that. The only thing I can say is, to me, it almost has a little bit of a berry aftertaste. I would agree with that. You don't often taste. Like a lot of times you can get that sugary taste, which people say that's caramel or this or that.

This almost has like a little bit of a cherry. It's damn good. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think on the back end, you can kind of taste that. Yeah, I have to describe it as berry. So I would say, here's the thing, if you can find a bottle of this and you're paying less than $100 for it, it's a bargain if you can get the Bardstown that is Will It Distillet? If you look at that, it's from Indiana, you don't want to pay what they're asking for it because you can get that, you can get that distal it a lot cheaper somewhere else.

But for starting out of the gate in 2024, I'd say, you know, only up from here. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I liked it. What would you rate it? What would you rate it? Oh, I would rate that. That's probably one of the better porers that I've had on the show. On the show, definitely. I would put it right up there. I would, I'd give it, I'd probably give it a nine. A nine. Oh, wow. That's. I mean, to me, I think the best, I'll just say the bottle that I had this year that I liked the best was that I had a bottle. It was a store, I think it was a store pick, and it was a 12-year-old Knob Creek.

And that was damn good. Well, that bottle's gone. that was it just that that that flavor and the way it tastes i really liked it but i would say i would say this is i like this better than i like that so it's the best whiskey i've had on the on barn talk all right how's that for fin it that's so there you go finishing up the year and starting out guns blazing there you go i love it all right guys well that's going to wrap it up if you got any value from the show please share it out share it out with your friends, family, whoever, pay the fee, leave your review on Spotify or Apple.

You can submit your questions at and email them to us at Barn Talk Show at gmail.com to have them answered on the show like we did here today. Go after what you want this year. Put yourself first. And we'll see you back here next week for another episode.