Barn Talk - Why I Shut Down My Small Business

Episode Date: February 15, 2026

Welcome to Barn Talk! In this Hot Topics episode, Sawyer and Tork are back in the barn to tackle everything from the ups and downs of farm life to big-picture issues shaking the world right now. Sawyer opens up about the tough decision to close his direct-to-consumer meat business, Farmer Grade, sharing an inside look at the challenges of doing it all, why health comes first, and how focusing on less can lead to greater impact. The guys jump into headline-making topics like the latest bombshells from the Epstein files, debates around voter ID laws and the SAVE Act, global military strategy in Greenland, and the fast-moving world of AI—touching on both its business impacts and its wild new capabilities. They wrap with a fresh take on social media trends, entrepreneurship, and the importance of pruning your digital life for real value. If you’re looking for honest, straight-shooting conversation about farming, business, and the world at large, you won’t want to miss this episode! SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ 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  00:00 Equipment Trouble and Field Mishaps 10:00 Markets Linked to US Treasuries 14:48 "Closing Farmer Grade for Health" 16:59 "Finding Focus Over Hustle" 24:27 February Meat Finale Sale 30:49 "Time, Value, and Priorities" 37:57 "COVID Deception and Government Intent" 43:15 Voter ID Reform Debate 47:31 Greenland: Future U.S. Military Base? 53:59 "ClaudeBot: AI Risks & Potential" 56:55 Time Spent on Ideas vs Admin 01:05:33 "Social Media's TikTokification Trend" 01:08:03 Spotify Expands Into Video Content ------------------------------- ⚠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

Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IG Private Wealth.com.

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in names. 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 Barn Talk hot topics episode. We're going to get into the nitty-gritty of what's going on in the world. But before we do, you guys know the drill. If you've been listening or watching for any amount of time,

if you get any value from the show, share it out with the people that you know. The more that you guys do that, the more that this show grows, the more guests we can have on, the more episodes we can make. We're really just trying to grow our impact, do more in-person stuff,

and just grow the community. So thank you to all that have been sharing the show. We really do appreciate it. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more that you guys do that, the more credible you make our show so we can have more episodes and have more guests come on the show.

We also love hearing your guys' opinions, your thoughts about the show, how we can improve it, what you like, what you don't like, and we just appreciate every single one of you that does that as well. There's a lot of ways to get value. So if you laughed, if you're related to us on something, you learn something, if you felt less lonely about what you're thinking after a listener or watching the show, just share it. Or if you felt way smarter because you're like, man, those guys. Or way dumber.

I mean, that's still value, too. That'll give you hope that you're smarter than we are. So, how are you doing? I'm good. Warm and trend. We're back in the barn. We're back in the barn. If you didn't catch last week's episode, we did our first speaking engagement.

And we just turned, we just figured we'd take the show on the road and keep it as real and raw as we do here in the barn. And it seemed like the feedback we got from doing that was great. All the people there seemed to really enjoy it. we posted online for you guys to to watch and listen to and the feedback's been great so we want to do more of that kind of stuff in the future where we can get out there and meet you guys and put you know faces to names and really just try to grow the impact that we have with the show and just kind of take it on the road and do more in person stuff so absolutely did you have fun doing that I did I enjoyed it it was it was good uh it was it was always good to get

out and talk to people and see how people are getting stuff done in other parts of the country. And I had a really good time. Are you tired today? No, I feel good. But I was going to say that the last two days here at this Loo Farm have been what I would call the most typical average farm days that we've had in quite a while because usually we get pulled in a lot of different directions. and we were doing all pretty much all farm stuff.

We had to load out some, we had to load out some corn, we had to get some compost hauled, do some pig work, and it worked exactly the way you would think that it would. We went to haul manure, and we hadn't used, well, compost.

We went to haul compost from our compost pile, and we haven't used the little track we got like a little utility tractor that we just used on the auger in the fall we hadn't used that since fall and we had a seal blow out on the the cylinder that raises and lowers the auger so before we went to do anything i'm like you know i bet that thing's low on hydraulic fluid so i should probably check that and i checked it and it didn't even show up on the dipstick and i was like oh no bueno so i put in a couple quarts and uh it's it still didn't show up.

And so then I put in a couple more courts and then it didn't show up. And then Sawyer came over and he's like, well, how low is it? And I said, well, I don't really know because it hasn't shown up on the stick. And I think I ended up putting two and a half gallons in it. So it's a good thing that we didn't just go off and kick on the PTO and do a bunch of stuff because that might have been no pointo. So then we got started hauling it and we blew a tire on the on the spreader. that spreader doesn't get used much.

So we had to take it off, and it hasn't been off for 25 or 30 years, so it didn't want to come off very well. And then in the midst of that, we started hauling the rest of the corn out of our big bin, and the roll pin snapped in the unload auger, and it's the one that you can't tell, you can't tell where, if it's lined up, to drive the roll pin out, you know,

so you have to pull it apart. it's a stub shaft that sticks in a coupler. And we had to do that. And then yesterday afternoon I was feeling so spry that I thought I'd go out and pick up all the trash that's blown out into the field from our manure project. You know, everything comes in a crate wrapped in plastic and all that. And as I was doing that,

I put a cornstalk right through the front driver tire of my pickup. So this morning we had a flat tire. So I would say it was just pretty... And you forgot one other thing. We started the morning off. yesterday morning with you replacing the chain on the unload auger. Oh yeah, that's right. So the whole way that started was I had this corn sold and we started it just as soon as we

could and yeah, the chain broke on the vertical and it was colder than, you know, whatever analogy you want to give. So I really didn't feel like doing that. and so I've waited until, you know, the weather is moderated, but we started out replacing that chain. That actually went well. Yeah, that was good. Much better than I thought.

When you replace a roller chain and you actually get it on the sprockets lined up and you counted the links right and you estimated that the chain, the new chain you put on wasn't going to be too short or too long or whatever. and anyway, it all went in, and I didn't even lose the cotter. I didn't even lose the cotter pin for the keeper on the half-link. So I was pretty impressed myself. But anyway, it has been nice to have warmer weather, and it's good to get some stuff done.

And like I said, Sawyer, you know, just job security. Every day, if we didn't have all that stuff break, you know, what will we do? It's true. It's true. Hey, it makes, uh, it makes your, job different every day. It doesn't make it, it makes it less boring. That's for sure. Oh yeah. There's no boredom. There's no boredom. So I actually, as for big of a pain in the ass it all was, it was actually kind of fun. So I enjoyed it.

Yeah. You know, uh, speaking of enjoyment, today's market update is somewhat enjoyable because the market's up today. And, uh, after a few, after a few, uh, quotes on truth, true, true social that got thrown over on X. everybody thinks that we're going to market a pile of grain and it's all going to be okay. So corn for March, and I do believe this is the close today, 435. So locally, I think the best we could be because I didn't get the close. They hadn't updated what the cash bids were, but I think it would be about 419 at one of the feeders would be the high. And I would say that's probably 430 in Cedar Rapids today.

for tomorrow. And beans for March, 1112, November, beans closed to 1098. Locally, I don't know, the market was up 20 cents. So I don't know if that gives you, if that gives you 1023 and 1095 in Quincy. So the whole deal comes down to if, if China ends up buying what Trumpy said that they have committed to buy in. Beans probably need to get new crop beans somewhere out there probably needs to get a 12 in front of that number to buy back enough acres to cover what they think the potential is. Now then. Whether it will, I don't know. I think you'd have a better chance if anybody's out there that has old crop beans left to sell. you may get a chance to sell them for a better price than what you might find in the futures for 26 crop.

I don't know. Bean meal for March 303 a ton, wheat for March 536, February hogs 8750. The nearby for hogs doesn't change much, but the summer just keeps running up. July, July hogs $111.11 a pound. cattle, 235, feeder cattle, 364, and crude oil, 6343. India has supposedly committed to a deal with the Trump administration that they're going to quit buying Russian oil. They're going to buy oil from the U.S. or Venezuela, and in exchange for that, we're dropping their tariff from 50% to 18%. I don't know.

We'll see where it happens. I guess I kind of jump, I'll start at the end and go backwards because I was looking at interest rates and the 10 year and the 30 year haven't really changed much, if anything, they've bumped up a little bit. But pretty much, the dollar, the Japanese bond trade, gold, silver, Bitcoin, all of that stuff is kind of linked to U.S. treasuries and our debt. And you've seen what's happened. Bitcoin dropped 65,000 now. Gold hasn't really backed off that much.

I mean, 4875 last time I checked it. But silver 6881, and they first, they got it down to 70, and I think they're going to try to beat it to 50, but I don't think it's going to stay there. I think it's going to pop back off. and all of this run up is because

Japan I think the Japanese are going to have a lot to do with what happens with bond prices and interest rates and the dollar because the Japanese

over the years have kept their interest at zero or near zero. And there has been this trade where you could go borrow Japanese yen for almost nothing and then turn around and bring it to America

and invest in whatever. And the Japanese were one of the biggest purchasers of United States treasuries, United States bonds. And if the dollar strengthens, it makes purchasing those bonds, that much more expensive.

And if you throttle back the amount of treasuries that they're buying and the rest of the world are buying, that drives the yield up because it becomes more expensive for the United States to refinance their debt. And that has all been working over the last few months. You've seen that happening. And golds run up, silver's run up, Bitcoin's run up. And then this last week, you saw the dollar weekend

and I think you had a lot of people trying to short silver, gold to a certain extent, and I don't know whether that's what drove Bitcoin down or not. But it's going to be interesting to see whether or not that holds because I don't think it can hold. I think you're going to see money flow back into those because I don't know how much faith is out there for the U.S.

dollar. I don't know. We'll just have to see but anyway, that's all playing out in all of these commodities and all of these I guess you'd call them store of value assets. So I don't know where it go.

I know I'd probably be buying Bitcoin at this price. This is not financial advice, but yeah, I mean, it's at a point where I don't know. And the same, I mean silver, I don't know. If they beat it, if they beat it, you get it back to $50. I know there's going to be a pile of people buying it. So I don't know. We'll have to see. That is the market update courtesy of our good friends at Contaraag.com.

Conteraag.com if you would like to learn more. And given our financial straits of the ag industry today. It might not be a bad idea to get a second opinion. So if you're interested in one, talk to the boys at Contera Ag. They got some kick-ass shirts. They sent us that. So a couple episodes ago, we gave him, cut them a little shit because we didn't get a cooler. And somebody got a cooler. And I said on here, what are we, chop liver? Yeah. And they must have been listening. So they sent us a cooler straight to our house and they gave me one of these shirts. So these shirts are nice. I like him. Shout out to John. John at Contera. They're not helping me. break myself of whining, you know, because I was whining that I didn't get to go to

FarmCon because we didn't have time to run down there. And a good friend of mine, a former hog billing customer, the Horace boys from down by Fairfield, Iowa, they got a cooler down there in Kansas City. So I was whining about it. And low behold, they sent one. The only problem was they sent it to the wrong address and Sawyer got it, so there's no chance of me getting that. But that's all right. You need cold beverages more than I do anyway. that's right i need to stack the coolers up you do yep yeah for sure so what are we going to do what do you want to talk about well i think the first uh hot take and i guess hot topic we should talk about is um everybody keeps asking where what do you do what's going on with farmer grade

i go to farm grade everything sold out what's going on you guys don't say anything in the intro anymore about farm grade what where are you out farm grade well this year i made the decision in 2026 that I'm going to step away from Farmer grade and I'm going to close her down for the foreseeable future and there's a lot of reasons why the first reason and most important is

and I'm not saying this because I want anyone's freaking sympathy I don't want any DMs I don't need any comments I don't need any of this I've been putting off a health issue for probably over a year because between doing this podcast guys

pig farm and farming shooting content on the farm, running farmer grade, and doing this manure separation project. I was burning at both ends all day, every day. I couldn't take time to step off the gas without feeling like one of the things was slipping and I was getting way behind. And I was doing that for a couple years, you know,

and I was putting off my health and there was this health issue that kept coming up and it was kind of a scare and it kept reoccurring and getting worse. and finally I went and got it checked out and I need to do something about it. And so that's kind of the first reason. The fact that I can't even step away for a health issue

because I know that if I'm not running it, if I'm not the one going at it every single day, it's not going to work, it's going to fall apart. It's not going to stay on the rails or stay on the tracks. That's not good. So that's kind of the first reason. Second reason is what I alluded to before. I mean, I for the last, I don't know, two, three years, I mean, I've been burning at all these ends,

trying to make everything go, trying to make everything work, and really just not having much of the life outside of work. And I'm all about working and going and getting yours and hustling and grinding and making something of yourself. But there's, I think I've kind of found my limit. And the other thing is when you're trying to do as many things as I was trying to do and you're, you don't have a team really built for all the things that you're doing

and that it's all relying upon your shoulders or, you know, the small team that you do have or the couple people that you do have, it's pretty much impossible to make all those things be really great. And that kind of gets me to my next point is I kind of did some reflect. and realize, am I doing any of these things great, or am I doing them all good enough? Am I doing all these things just good enough because I'm doing too many things? And that was kind of the biggest realization was, you know, this podcast has grown and become such a awesome thing that people seem to really enjoy.

And, you know, we've been doing it really for the last two years on the side. and I because Farmer grade required so much time and energy and just my attention and I just got to the point this year with everything going on that I was like man if I let lighten the load a little bit and go all in on a few few things rather than all these things and put all my effort towards something folks get more focused and singular with my focus how much better could we be how much how much more could we do? And really, the opportunities with Barn Talk and with this-l-do farm and the manure separation project and on the farm,

there's a lot more levers to be pulled here than there were in that business. And the thing about that business is we had our best year's, best year in sales in 2025 yet. revenue-wise, the growth of the business was the best it's ever been. The profitability was not as good as I wanted it to be because cost of good sold went up skyrocketed because of the beef price.

But I still think it was a good year. But with all these other things that I was dealing with, I looked around and I was like, this business requires so much and the payoff of it is going to be such a, a long horizon thing. It's going to be a long-term endeavor. And it always was. But I have all this other opportunity going on right now that I've just been putting on the side. And this thing is requiring so much. And I'm getting very little for my time that I'm putting in. Uh, that it just,

I just had to make, I just had to make a change. I had to make a change for all the reasons that I listed before this. But last thing I'll say about the meat business. is when I got into the meat business, I learned that it's a lot different than what I thought it was. And the reason I say that is, you know, when I brought Farmer Grade to the fold and thought this idea of, we're going to bring the most trusted, most transparent meat to the marketplace

and go further with the traceability and transparency than any other meat business out there. Every single farm that we work with is going to have a story and you're going to be able to trace it back to their farm through their content, through social media. But when you get into the business, you realize that a lot of these bigger brands that you know of that are the direct-to-consumer players in the world, a lot of them buy box beef from the packing plant because the simple truth of the matter is the economics of buying full live animals and processing them and shipping them direct to consumer,

on the beef side at least, is not really being done. It's not doable. A lot of people are buying the box shit from packing plants, putting their label on it and send it to the people because the economics just don't work.

And when I realized that to scale you had to do that, to really scale your business, you kind of have to sell your soul and the packer owns your ass, that is going away that's going away from everything that I started the brand on.

I wanted transparency. I wanted people to know where their food came from. I wanted to know where, I wanted people to know where their meat came from. I wanted them to know their farmer. And when you realize that that is what the big players do in your industry in the direct-to-consumer space, that they really aren't going true farm-to-table most of the time,

that put a bad taste in my mouth. and I kind of had to make the decision. Do I go away from my values and what I started this business on and sell my soul to play the big game that everybody's playing or do I pivot and go a different direction? And that is the other reason. That is the other reason.

I just didn't feel good about the idea that I built this whole business based on transparency and trust, but then to grow and to scale, to the size that I would want to do that at, I would have to go buy primals from IBP or JBS or whatever to be able to grow as fast as I wanted to grow and keep the freezer stocked.

That wasn't, that, I didn't want to do that. And I'm not saying everybody does that. I'm not saying that. But there's a hell of a lot more people that do that than I think what people are aware of. That's the little dirty secret about the meat business. Truth be told, that is the dirty little secret. that nobody wants to say about the meat business. Packers own everybody's ass a little bit more

than what they think. That's the nitty-gritty truth of it, really. The small farms, not the small farms, but the meat businesses out there that are family-owned and family, you know, family direct-to-consumer meat businesses that are saying this is whatever family farms, I would say those people are definitely taken from their herd and selling it direct-to-consum. which is the way that I think everybody perceives that it is when you buy direct to consumer. But I think the bigger brands that you're familiar with, that you're familiar with, I don't think that they do that. And it's a scalability thing. So anyway, those are all the reasons. Those are all the reasons as to why I'm shutting her down, closing the small business,

closing Farmer grade for right now. I don't know if it's going to be a long-term thing. I'm keeping the brand name. I'm keeping the trademark. I'm keeping all the things because I love the brand. I think the brand is great and I love what it stands for. I just don't know if it's going to be in meat. I don't know if I'm going to come back to it or not. I'm just going to put it on the shelf for now and focus my energy somewhere else. That being said, if you love the, if you have supported Farmer Grade ever, if you love what we were doing at Farmer Grade and you want to support us one last time. We are doing a finale box, a Farmer Grade finale box for the whole month of February, where you can buy a box that's going to have 10 to 12 pounds of meat in it with what's left in

the freezer. We got steaks. We got brisketes. We got hams. We got ground beef, patties, beef sticks, all the stuff, bacon, all the stuff's in there. And we're just doing variety boxes to get the freezer empty and to really close this thing out with a bang. So you guys can go to farmergrade.com and buy a finale box if you want to. But this is going to be the last run of meat for the foreseeable future for now. So that is what I'll say because I know that I saw a lot of people in the comments and DMs and, you know, I'm getting text messages about it. But that's really, that's my piece on the matter.

It's kind of like losing a loved one. It's not been easy, man. I'll be honest. Yeah. I mean, I put so much. much time and energy and effort and money into this thing. You know, I, you know, I've had so many nights, restless nights thinking about if this is the right decision or not, but ultimately I'm at peace with it. I think it is the right decision. And, you know, closing this thing down and dwindling it down

has not been easy. Every little thing that you have to do to get it shut down has not been easy. But yeah, it's your baby. I mean, it's the idea that you formed and created and, built and then you got to let it go. It's a tough, it's a tough thing. And any business owner that's ever shut down operation, they know exactly how that feels. But ultimately, I think it's best for me and where I'm at right now. I got to get my health. I got to get that number one, that's got to get figured out and dealt with. And then I think switching my focus and focusing on less things so we can really make an impact and grow what's working and doing really well and continue to just grow it, I think that's the smart play.

Yeah, I think, I mean, that's one of the reasons why we were actually able to do a live event. We've never done them before. We've always said no. And the main reason we've said no is because we just have too much stuff going on. And if we have a minute that we're not working here, we're working at Farmer Grade. and so that's, I mean, it is kind of nice. I do enjoy having my buddy back because, like, just the story I told about, you know, doing the stuff with the bin and all that, if I didn't have to have Sawyer to help me,

he was going to, he'd be at Farmer grade because that took most of his time. And, I mean, he was there whenever I needed him when you needed two people, but he wasn't, just there, you know, working with me every day because we didn't have time. So now, I mean, we're back. We can throw shit at each other and yell six times a day if we want to, which I kind of like that. So anyway, and I, this is not my last, I have committed my life to wanting to be a farmer and an entrepreneur. This, this, I am committed to that. game forever for the rest of my life. I will not quit. I am not stopping this train. I will continue to fight and claw. I love playing the game of business. I love being a farmer. I love creating

value, building things, creating strategizing and creating a lot of value in the world. You know, I love it. And so I think the thing that I've been telling myself and that I've heard from other entrepreneurs is I'm kind of looking at this more like a pivot rather than you know, like quitting because ultimately I'm just pivoting to a better opportunity that I think has a longer runway and a bigger level to pull right now based on if I put more into it. But don't get a twist. If you're somebody that's ever gone through this or you're going through something similar or having thoughts about it, the idea of entrepreneurship is just not to quit the journey.

Do not quit playing the game of entrepreneurship. you might start a business, you might buy a business, you might get into something, and it might not go the way you wanted. And as long as you don't absolutely destroy your life, you know, because of this business, doesn't mean that you have to stop playing the game. It doesn't mean you got to stop playing the game forever. And so you just got to dust yourself off and pivot and move on and keep playing the game. And that's what I'm going to do. That's what I'm going to do. and I'll leave you with this. I think I said this in the last,

and I said leave you with this. We got some more topics to get into, but the last thing I'll say about this topic is, you know, I think that co-creating on God's ultimate creation is kind of my mission statement now. I read that in a book, and I think as farmers and as entrepreneurs, if you can live your life in a way that you're just trying

to bring as much value to the world as you possibly can and leave it a better place than when you were born into it, that is worth striving for, working for committing yourself to. And I just, that really resonates with me. I love that thought process. And I think farmers and entrepreneurs embody that more than anything because you are co-creating. You are building. You are going in the fire, feet to the fire, trying to do things and build things and cultivate things and plant things and create things. And that's something worth doing, I think. That's worth doing.

That's what, that's really what makes impact in this world, in my opinion. And yeah, you got to love like Jesus and, you know, you got to be kind to people and help people. There's a lot of ways to bring value to the world. But that, to me, is what life's all about. That's one of the most important things in life, I think. So anyway. What did you, what were you, I mean, what did you think when I was coming to you about this and pondering about it and, you know, outside looking in, you know, what? I knew something with, I mean, I just knew we couldn't keep doing this at the pace that we were.

So originally, I thought, okay, if, and you did too, your, your goal was always to get to the point at Farmer Grade that you could get you could afford to hire enough good people on the operating side to buy back your time that you know you'd have more time to do whatever but as we got to the end of the year and we realized that yeah revenue doubled but cost doubled too and you're sitting there looking at that and it's like it's all about it's all about time it's all about what can I do you know, what is an hour of my time worth? What can I create with it? What kind of value can I get out of it?

And that's where I think I was happy. Once again, I mean, we tried not to, you kept asking me, what should I do? And I kept telling you, you're going to have to figure out what you want to do because it isn't about, you know, it was easy for me to look at it and go, well, I hope you get that out of it because then I get my son back full time. and I always felt like we, this podcast and kind of the community that we are building, I always felt like it wasn't getting, it wasn't getting the amount of time put into it that we should.

And so I always looked at that as where I wanted to focus my time. And so at the end of the day, I was, I guess I was, I was relieved because everybody saw it. Everybody saw the amount of stress you were under. And, you know, all you got at the end of day, anybody that's been through something serious on the health side will say, at the end of the day, all you got is your health because if you have a health problem, all your other problems just, they just meld away because that's the only thing you can deal with. Now, you know, you're lucky in the fact that this is not, this is not like life altering. You just, it's just something you got to, you just got to deal with. I got to address. Yeah, and then it'll be, you'll be fine.

But so, I mean, I think we both agreed that I think there's a lot more that we can do with both thistle do farm and barn talk. And you, as we go through this year, you're all going to see that. You're going to see the things we have planned. and there's a lot of things we can't talk about right now, but I think we're definitely headed in the right direction, and I feel like we're now, we're definitely more focused on where we want to go

and what we want to do. And so, hey, thanks for sticking with us. If you could see crop issues before they cost yield, you would. That's exactly what Sky Scout from Landis does. With advanced in-season aerial imagery and agronomic insight, Sky Scout, helps farmers catch stress earlier and make smarter decisions across every acre. Learn how SkySkout works for your operation at landis.org.

Now, let's get back to it. Yeah, I'm going to put everything I got into this that I was putting into that. So I think that, like I said, we're trying to do as many things as we can to really make this show better and make the impact of the show better for you guys, more valuable, more guests, more live events, stuff like that. We really want to invest in what we're doing here and build it into something great. So that is the update on Farmer Grade.

Like I said, I appreciate any of you that have ever supported Farmer Grade and believed in the mission and gave a kid a chance on his dream at the time. And yeah, I really appreciate it. So next topic up is, it's a big one. It's a big one that you've all been seeing. Epstein Files, like part two was released not too long ago, and it's not good, Rick.

It is not good. It does not look good. The emails are not good. These people are more fucked up than we initially thought. It seems like every conspiracy theory out there about how truly screwed up these people are is really the truth.

And honestly, I think it's throwing everybody into a spiral because everybody is just like, doesn't, cannot fathom that this has actually gone on and happened, but it has. And I mean, I'm not going to go into specifics of like all the crazy, crazy shit, but just know that it was worse than them just being pedophiles. I mean, I think, yeah, there was some really heinous, satanic shit going on with these people. and I don't give a fuck if it was a celebrity, a politician on the right or left, whatever. It is messed up.

A hundred, any way you can slice it, it's messed up, and anybody involved, they're screwed up. They're screwed up and they should be held accountable for it. I also think, though, that we are getting shown what they want us to see. Like, if you think this is bad, imagine the shit that you didn't get released. I mean, really, truly. I mean, do you really think we're getting the full story? Do you really think they're letting us know everything?

Or you think they're letting us know just the right amount that they want us to know? Well, think about that. So my, and it all comes back, you know, look how long this has been going on. I mean, what you just, you said when you're up at the house the other night, you were talking about, who was the guy that broke this originally? I mean, like, what, 10 years ago? well um Alex Jones Alex Jones everybody I mean

Alex Jones is a very polarizing figure you know he's got what is what's his show called? I can't remember something worse something worse info worse right he's been canceled he said some he has said some outlandish shit in his life no doubt about it but

he has been screaming from the rooftops that these hot these class this class of people have been doing some weird ass shit. And he's been saying that for a long, long time. Yeah, I mean, I don't remember when that started. But, I mean, it's been a while. But we've been going through all this.

And my question is, is anybody, is anybody when it's all said and done, is one person going to get prosecuted? It's this, it's, I mean, that's the thing, guys. I mean, whole the whole COVID fiasco, they, they, I think that's, that might be the other thing at play here.

They realize, nothing, they don't actually got to prosecute anybody because with COVID, everybody just fucking forgot about it. Everybody just forgot that we got locked away for two years and couldn't go to our, couldn't go to hospitals and couldn't go to sporting events, couldn't go out to restaurants.

The whole thing was fucking stupid. At the end of the day, we all realized that, holy shit, this isn't as deadly as they were telling us it was. And I mean, and they banned ivermectin, and they wouldn't let you use that even though that was all the things, right? All the things. We all realized, or a lot of people have realized, COVID at the end of the day was more of a hoax than it was

legitimately killing the amount of people that it said it was killing. And it really showed the true, I think, intention of our government. government. That was the first real time that they saw how powerful they could be and taking away our freedom and rights. Yet we didn't do shit about it. Fauci where's Fauci? Did he ever get held accountable for the outlandish shit he said? How about the news anchors that were saying the unvaccinated need to be thrown in camps or that they shouldn't get hospital treatment because they're unvaccinated? That shit was being said on national TV by news anchors, not a single one of them was held accountable, not a single one of them.

So in their mind, they're probably looking at this and say, well, it'll all be forgotten about in due time. I mean, nobody's going to get held accountable. I just think it's crazy that you could have something that went on as long as that did that so many people were tied to and not one person did. The other thing that's curious is of all the people that, were involved in that and had relationship with that guy and were on his plane to his island, to his parties.

And there's not a single one of them that knew anything about what was going on. I mean, I don't know of anybody. I don't know of any person that has been linked to him that ever stepped up and said, oh, yeah, I knew what was going on. Yeah. I mean, nobody. Yeah, they all, they all say, oh, I don't know. I don't know.

I just was, yeah, well, I was, la, la, la, la. I had no idea. Yeah, it's bullshit. It's absolutely bullshit. And I just think the world is a lot more evil than what people think. The devil is at play here. If you go look at any of these files extensively and you really go look at the emails that have been released and you look at the shit that has been said and you look at these pictures,

brother, it is not good. It is not good and it's a lot more screwed up than what. we, I think, all initially thought it just was. And that, you can't, all you can say there is that is some evil satanic shit. I mean, those people have absolutely lost their minds. They are evil. Doing any of the things that has been described in those emails or in those files is disgusting.

And, uh, I just think the world's, the world needs Jesus more than ever before because, uh, the amount of shit that is messed up is unbelievable and the amount of evil that's out there is crazy and I think we need more people sprinting back to what is right and what is good in the light rather than this dark stuff and that's the only way we're going to win this. I would love to see all the people that were involved prosecuted. But it's not going to happen probably and that's the sad truth and people can say we need to to be more mad. We got to be, we got to be pissed off about this. We ought to be in the streets riding about this. But is it still, I mean, is it going to, is it going to really make a difference?

Are they really going to hold anybody accountable? I think the people that are involved are powerful as shit. I mean, I'm seeing stuff that Epstein has been tied to Israel. I mean, I've seen emails of him, he was tied to Israel in some way. And people in power. there and people in power in our government and celebrity i mean i think the ties go pretty pretty deep they go pretty deep and uh those people are not going to just let let the cat out of the bag fully okay let's shift gears a little bit to uh more more realistic problem that we got i don't know i don't think it's a problem uh this save act so by the time this comes out hopefully this bill gets passed but there's no guarantee it will.

So basically the Save Act is all it is you need a photo ID to vote. And every poll from every group, 80% of Americans are for this. I think it's like 70% of Democrats, 90% of Republicans, 80% of white people, 80% of Hispanic, 80% of white people, 80% of Hispanic people, 70% of, 6% of black people. I mean, there's all kinds of polls, and it is overwhelmingly, I mean, you need an ID to do anything. But there is not a national law that says you need to have one to vote. And that's what this bill's about. And you would think it'd be a slam dunk. I mean, it's an 80% issue. But by gosh, they're taking their sweet time. I mean, they're supposed to be a slam dunk. I mean, they're supposed to vote on it today as we're shooting this, and I don't think it's come to the

floor. So I, to me, I'd be like, call your congressman, call your senator, because I think this is kind of one of those things where this will change America for the better. If you can eliminate that if you aren't in this country legally, you're not, you're either not a real person, or you're trying to stuff the ballot box and you're trying to vote multiply, or you're trying to submit multiple mail-in ballots, whatever. If you can cut that out, I don't know how more security for voting isn't a good idea. And the only people that don't want it are people that want to somehow manipulate the election. Because the argument that it's intimidating to have to have an ID is total bullshit,

because you have to have an ID to do damn near anything, to rent a car, to get, to check into a hotel, to get an airline ticket. To get into some gym sometimes, you got to give an ID. I mean, to get a gym membership. I mean, most memberships, I'm sorry. If you want to get on a dating app and get verified, you got to provide your ID.

So it's stupid. I mean, it's totally stupid. And anyway. Sounds like common sense to me, right? Well, it is. That's why 80% of the people are for it because it just makes sense. The only people that doesn't seem to make sense are politicians. And I can tell you one thing. If the Republicans are worried about the midterms, if they don't pass this damn thing,

they better worry because there are a bunch of people becoming, you know, people think this is like a Democrat deal. Well, the Republicans have got the football. And if they don't, if they don't score on this one, there is a shitload of people that are going to be like, I don't know if I'm going to vote for you because I can't trust you to do what is common sense. So that's a big deal going on.

I'll talk about Greenland for a minute. That all's kind of settled down, but there was a story out last week. I've read it a couple different places, and it's kind of about why Greenland even matters. And I think I touched on this, but I honestly think that the Trump administration has zero faith in not only NATO, but the European Union. And by that,

I mean, I think the reason why the United States wants a presence in Greenland, and I think you're going to see this happen. I think you're going to see, I think you're going to see, I think you're going to see construction of one of the largest combined force military bases next to the one that's in the Indian Ocean. What's that called? Abu Garcia or something like that. There's an island in the Indian Ocean that is literally an Air Force base and a naval shipyard. It's got a deep water port. And it is no, there's no, it's no country.

So it's like there is no, there is no native people there. there is no local government there. It is literally just a big rock, and the United States controls the whole thing, and it is one of the largest military bases in the world. And I think you're going to see something similar to that get built in Greenland. And the reason I think you're going to see it is because I think the Trump administration and possibly the American intelligence community,

and defense community, maybe getting to the point where they're not altogether convinced whether or not the Europeans, if push come to shove, can be dependent on, which is a little bit disturbing, but when you look at what's going on

in, say, Great Britain, I think that they have completely lost their way. I mean, they have no... There doesn't seem to be any common sense. they've had open borders and you think we have problems with immigrants, illegal immigration,

and people coming here trying to siphon off the system. I mean, in Europe, it's like, it's just another day at the office. But I, I don't know. I think that, I think that is the reason why that's such a big deal to the Trump administration. and we'll see as we go here,

but I wouldn't be surprised at all if you don't see some huge investment in the infrastructure over there as far as our armed forces go. Yeah. How's that? That's almost Tim Hatt. I did see somebody say

that we already have some military personnel in Greenland. I don't... We do. But you think that's... They don't think that's enough. I think you're just going to see them build it. So today, you know, the United States uses a lot of ports in Europe and, you know, in Italy.

So our carrier groups and for like a lot of planes land in, there's a lot of, there's an Air Force base in Germany. They use that a lot. Like when we're flying, when you see the planes that flew over to Iran, those tankers, that filled them mid-air, all of them came, not all of them, but there was a group of them that probably came from Europe to meet up with them to refuel them.

Well, I think the United States is looking at that and long-term, okay, are we going to be able to keep an Air Force base there? Are we going to be able to depend on the Europeans? And if we can't, where's the next closest place that you could do that? I don't know. But something to think about.

Strange days. It is strange days. I want to get into this other topic that I want to, that I think people should be aware of on the AI deal. And I know every time I saw somebody comment and say, do we got to talk about AI in every episode? Well, guys, it's pretty relevant. Just every other.

Every other. I mean, it's part of our lives now. I think it's a really merging thing that I think you got to stay red up on to know what's coming. I know that a lot of times it seems doom and gloom, but this is the reality of the situation that we find ourselves in. you can either somehow know what's going on with AI

and being aware of it and maybe use the tools to your vantage or get ran over. You know, that's the reality. So a recent new emerging technology for AI has came out an open source program.

It's called OpenClaw, aka Claudebot, and pretty much what it is is AI agent. It's an AI agent that you can, I guess program, I don't know a ton about it, but you can program it on your computer to essentially do things for you now. Create, like, do tasks for you. Manage your email inbox. Create social posts. Run your sales program or your sales team protocol. Run your sales force for you.

Create ads for you. Create videos for you. I'm seeing guys talk about how their posts, they have like eight TikTok shop accounts and they're going to have this AI, this Claudebot, create all this content and post it on their behalf so that they have all these social media accounts making all this money on TikTok for them passively. I'm not shitting you. Look it up. Clodbot. Look at all these guys that are doing this with all these ideas. Guys are spending a hell of a lot of time automating the shit that they want to do or multiplying the amount of stuff that they are currently doing to make more money. And so is, is it all about, is it all about the prompts?

So the part that I don't understand is how do you automate that? So are they, are they spending their time training it? Well, you got to download the program, run the program, and then, yeah, I think you have to, you have to train it to essentially become what you want it to be. but it also will learn. I think it'll learn, like it'll learn and get better as it does it.

As it does the task, it'll get better. Like I said, I saw somebody just say, all you got to tell Claudebot to do is just go make you money. And it'll learn, it'll just go make, it'll figure out what to do

to go make money. Yeah. I don't know. It's all new to me. I'm just getting into it. I'm just seeing all these videos emerge. It's the hot button topic. Everybody's talking about

when it comes to AI right now. But I am seeing a lot of young people that are saying this is change. This is the, this is as big as chat GPT. Like this, this tool is massive. It is massive. One thing to, one thing to say is, if you hear this and you're thinking of trying this out, don't load, don't download this to your personal computer because it's open sourced. So you would want to get basically a dummy laptop or something that doesn't have.

have any of your personal information on and that you would only load in what you want it to have access to because it is open source. So it could be, I mean, I don't know, but I'm assuming it could be hacked. Well, that's what people are saying. Some skeptics, I mean, some people are skeptical of it right now because, and I've seen a lot of people buy like mini IMAX, like the little IMac box you can buy, and they're just running them on that. Because, yeah, they're not doing it on their personal computer. But yeah, I mean, I think hackers probably have the potential to hack into it if you're not diligent and smart about it. So this is definitely, I'm not recommending anybody just go out and do this without doing some serious, serious research, like serious research.

Like checking your, checking everything you can possibly check to make sure you're doing it right in the safe way. But I just think it's very interesting. I think anybody that is a young person right now or anybody that just is interested in AI and where it's emerging, if you haven't heard a CloudBot, go look up people that are using it and seeing how they can use it

because I think a lot of people are going to make a lot of money with it. Truth be told, and automate a lot of shit inside their businesses too. So just to be aware of that, other thing that I wanted to say is, and that's emerging in AI right now, is this platform called MaltBook. It is the first all only,

AI social media. So they have, AI has formed their own social media talking to other AIs. So your A.I. So your A.I. doesn't get lonely? I don't know, but they're communicating with one another now.

What are they talking about? There's like a forum where they all, they've put AI posts, they post forums. They're talking to each other back and forth. I've seen them start to say that they want to form their own language on the social media. a lot of people are shitting their pants about it because it ain't good it's kind of scary it's called moltbook there isn't any of them wanting to form a company called cyberdine systems is there because that

might be a sign that you need to stop is that a terminator quote yeah that's the company that form the terminators okay well uh i don't know all i know is that it's what's hot and happening in in a i i recommend anybody go check it out see what's going on form your own opinion learn it know that be aware of it because everybody's shit in their pants about both these things and it's what's here so okay let me ask you something because we haven't talked about this in a while um you know you're you guys are all lucky because you only get you only get the cream of the crop of the ideas that flow through soyer's head i get like you're getting you're getting like one turn on the spicket i get like the fire hose

I get like the fire hose. When we're out working with the pigs or we're getting ready to shoot the podcast or we're driving somewhere, I get all the ideas. And it's a lot. So my question to you is, how much time,

I don't know whether you want to say a day or a week, how much time do you feel like you spend just like, kind of running down new ideas. Like, what do you, what do you think? Versus, like, how much time do you spend, how much time do you spend on, on pot, like social, our social, the stuff you have to do for us,

the administrative stuff, because let's face it, you all know, I'm not doing very much administrative stuff. I'm, I'm creating content. And once you get behind me, beyond me, creating content, I'm pretty much useless for anything else. So Sawyer's got to do all the back end stuff, and he's got some people helping him, but I'm not much help.

But just as like, I think about, because I think people would be curious to know, like, how much time do you dedicate in a week to just trying to learn? I really couldn't tell, I mean, I don't know because I haven't tracked that. I am very meticulous about my task and executing my to-do list

just about every day. That is what I and I go, instead of watching Netflix at night, a lot of the times now, I'm watching YouTube videos of founders, CEOs that are building in public. And that's like Netflix, that's like Netflix to me.

And I just don't know, I just don't think people realize the sheer amount of a free game there is out there when it comes to business and AI and what's coming and what's moving and what people are doing and how people are building. There is so much shit out there if you just go searching for it. So I really can't tell you how many hours I spend because I'm not mindful of it. But when I'm eating lunch, I'm listening to a podcast or I'm watching a podcast. When I'm ready to go to bed, I'm watching some shit that's going to inspire me, show me

something, somebody building a business, something like that I'm trying to learn. If I'm in the hog barn, if I'm not listening to music, I'm listening to a podcast. I'm probably overstimulated too much. I'll just be honest. But that's how you kind of keep in the know. In my social media feed, guys, I'm going to be honest, I follow a shitload of people that I think can bring value to what I'm doing. Like, I don't think people prune their social media following near enough.

So do you do that? Do you like people that you have followed when you're like when you're like when you're like when you run something down and you feel like whatever that person? I am extreme. I think I think there's a lot of people that are mindless they mindlessly scroll on social media mindlessly. Yep. I am very observant. I am very observant of how not only. okay, not only how they make their content, what are they talking about, what is their funnel, you know, what are they building? How are they building it? How are they making their content? What makes them different? I mean, I'm, I am like, and I, when I see somebody that I'm like, damn, they're, they're cool, they're doing something cool. I go and I, I want to, I want to know, like, I want to know how they do it all.

Like I want to learn how they're making money, how they're making content, what their ideas are, how they have built what they have built. That is like I get obsessed about that stuff. So when I come across somebody on social media that brings me value in some capacity, I'm looking at,

okay, what, how do they do this, what's their story, what are they building, what tools are they using, their funnel look like. How do they make their content? All the shit. I mean, all that shit. I'm thinking about it. And it can be, it can be, it can be, because what people don't realize with creators is sometimes somebody that's like a comedic, they could be a con, like Shane Gillis. Yeah. Shane Gillis, everybody looks at Shane Gillis like the regular, oh, fuck, he's hilarious. You know, he's just the good old boy from America. Like, he's great. And I agree. He is. He's fucking hilarious.

But Shane Gillis is smarter than what people think he is. I mean, He knows business at some high, I mean, he knows business. A lot of these people know business or they know somebody who has a team around them that know business. They know a funnel, all that shit. Yeah, because they're curating his content in a way to help create a funnel to bring you to whatever he wants to bring you to. Yeah.

And so just being extremely observant with your scrolling. Yeah. So on that, do you, do you, Do you, if you are scrolling through and there's somebody on there that, you know, because they're always trying to introduce you to new people. But if they, if something comes up and it's something that you're like, nope, not interested, do you, do you go through the trouble of clicking, not interested, or do you? Sometimes.

Yeah. Yeah. So you actually prune your feed. Yeah. Because I think, I think most people don't prune their feet at all. No. They just scroll. We all think about following the people we like,

but we don't think about tailoring that feed towards what is productive. Yeah, 100%. What are your top... What, give me, you don't have to give me a number, but what podcasts are you listening to right now? My favorite podcast right now, by far,

is Open Residency by Mark Brazil. He is, I mean, when you want to talk about a business guy, if you want to learn real business, business shit, tactical business knowledge, content, the guys he's bringing on are experts in business and marketing and funnel creating and advertising in entrepreneurship, in business, growth mindset, lifestyle design.

I mean, he goes in depth with these people that have actually been there and done that. And it's all like gold. I mean, it's just pure gold. It's pure gold. And it doesn't have near enough listeners and followers. But I give this guy mad credit. He has created a hell of a show and it's up and coming.

The YouTuber that I watch like a Netflix show, his name is Dominic Icovone. He is a fucking stud. He has built, he has built multiple businesses inside the fitness realm. And I mean, he is a serial entrepreneur and he posts real, raw, day in the life videos, week in the life videos of him being a real operator

of all these businesses. And somebody just follows him around while he does it. And he's just a kick-ass human being, got a family, living life to the fullest, operate and creating value in the world in a really positive way. And it's just amazing to see what's possible. And it fires me up. I mean,

I'm going to be honest, it fires me up when I watch this guy because it's like, it shows you what's possible. It shows you all the opportunity out there and the things that you learn from him. I mean, he's running a billion dollar company. I mean,

and he's just, he does meetings where he tells you what they're talking about in the meetings. I mean, he breaks it down to that level. And it's, and that's free. That's literally free on the internet. He has a YouTube channel. He's got 30,000 subscribers. Go watch one of his vlogs.

It's literally insane that you're able to watch this guy be an operator for free. For free. Yeah. It's nuts. What, what social media platform do you think is, is doing it right right now, or is growing right now. Their algorithm is, and what one do you think is going the other way?

You got an opinion on that? I would say, I mean, the problem with social media right now is it's all, like we say, it's the TikTokification of social media. Every single platform has adopted TikTok's mentality where they have formed a for you page for you. everything you see is not who you're following, but it's based on your interest. Yeah, you might get some people in your feed that you follow, but a lot of time it's just built on what you're interested in. What are you watching? What are you engaging in? What are you consuming the most of? It's going to tailor your feed to that. But to me, if you are going to be a creator that builds depth with your audience, YouTube is the best platform and I think podcasts are the best platform.

and I would say TikTok too but YouTube and podcasting if you want to build real depth with people and actually like build a community you have to be on those two platforms but on the short form side I think TikTok

I think TikTok is where you can still be the most real in the short form side of things Instagram I still think people treat that like a highlight real Instagram people still treat like a highlight real there's very few people that are willing to be real a shit on Instagram. And Facebook is just... Is Facebook... Do you think Facebook is dying a slow?

A slow death? Well, yes and no, but there's still a shitload of old people that use it. Yeah. I mean, there just is... There still is a lot of young Midwest people, at least, that use it. Yeah. So, I don't know. I don't think Facebook's going to die because Instagram... Meta owns Instagram, too.

Yeah. So... What about Spotify? as trying to trying to become a video also I think it's smart. How do you think they can make an en route on YouTube? Well, I think that's their goal.

I think they're trying to become more of a YouTube-style platform where, because what I'm seeing too is there's creators out there that make 12-minute podcast shows that are really more kind of like YouTube video shows. but they're posting it on Spotify as well. And you would kind of watch it and you think to yourself, this seems more of like a YouTube video, but they're able to post it on Spotify now too.

And so I think, yeah, you're seeing Spotify try to really make a play at this video thing because I just think to them it's probably more valuable to have video and audio to keep people on the platform, but also it's probably more appealing to advertisers than want to advertise on Spotify.

So they're probably thinking dollar signs in that regard. But yeah, I think Spotify's thinking we can be an all-encompassing platform just like YouTube is. YouTube has music. Spotify started with music. YouTube has podcasts.

Spotify has podcasts. Spotify is probably thinking, well, fuck, why can't we have the YouTube and social media side that YouTube has with shorts and videos? So, yeah, I think they're making a go at it for sure. I think it's good. Wow.

I was like a mini interview. I love it. I think that, yeah, Well, we just haven't talked about that in a while. I just kind of thought. I wondered where your thoughts were. I love talking about that shit. I can get, I love getting fired up about it.

I think people, I think people see that. Well, yeah. And I don't know, like I said, I don't know all, I don't know all the answers, but I just think, be mindful of what you're looking at when it comes to social media. If you can use it to learn from it, you, there's so much free game out there. So much. It's insane. Well, look at that.

I don't think we need to go a whole lot further. We appreciate you guys so much for listening and or watching or supporting the show in any way. If you got any value from the show today, all I ask is you just shared out with the people that you guys know. We really appreciate all the support. Thank you for all the reviews. We love you and we'll see you back here next week for another episode. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play.

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