When Does Familiar Become Too Familiar? | The Granary

00:00 How do you keep relationships from getting too comfortable and more importantly, too costly? 00:00:03 We are in a relationship business in agriculture. But you know what? Sometimes people say, I've got a great relationship with this 00:00:08 Guy, which means they're screwing you. That's what we're talking about with my friends at the greenery. It's gonna be a big one. 00:00:13 You ready for a conversation with some real farmers about real issues? And the best part, you are invited. 00:00:19 Pour yourself a drink, grab a snack. Most importantly, pull up a chair. Welcome to the Grainery. Hey guys. 00:00:34 Alright. Kelly Garrett, Chad Henderson and New to the Grain Reed. Johnny Verell, uh, extre Ag. 00:00:40 Guys, we talk a lot about being a relationship business. You know what? There's a reality that sometimes people 00:00:47 that are good relationships also sometimes are screwing you. Um, we see it with cash rents. 00:00:52 Well, I'm not gonna pay you market price because we've known each other for a long time. Well, what the hell difference does that make? 00:00:56 Hey, you know what? We can go ahead and charge this person full price retail because you know why I've known him since high school. 00:01:02 These things happen. How do you keep your relationships in a relationship business from getting costly? 00:01:07 Yeah. I just think, you know, you gotta always be price checking, checking on bite and, And, and it seems kinda You for 00:01:13 that. You know what you Yeah. Doesn't it seem like, doesn't it seem kinda like you're cheating because you're like, I've known this guy 00:01:19 for 40 years, he's not gonna screw me, but you've gotta keep modest. Yeah. I think that the relationship is a great thing 00:01:26 because there's gonna be times they need a favor. There's gonna be times you need a favor, but the number needs to be the number. 00:01:31 'cause it still needs to be business. Yeah. But there is more than one way to extract value. Yeah. And just like he said though, 00:01:36 but you also gotta remember sometimes when things get tight, the guys that are your friends, 00:01:39 your true friends are gonna be there behind you too. So you might pay a little extra for that relationship on some things in 00:01:45 The good times. So I'm thinking about banking now, right? That's just, that's one of the biggest part of our business. 00:01:48 And everybody has a cheaper interest rate. That's right. Might not have the same back. 00:01:53 You know, somebody that might give you another 30 days, you know? Yeah. That matters, don't it? Yeah. 00:01:58 It's a real true thing. Uh, I, on a real estate deal, seven or eight or nine years ago, um, got a little over my skis 00:02:06 and I called the banker that I've known since kindergarten and won't do it was nothing illegal. 00:02:10 It's just that thing you're talking about. We didn't, after we got it all arranged, I said, I need, uh, I need some money. 00:02:16 I said, I got a little lower ahead of myself. And he said, alright, what do you need? I said, oh, 400 or 500 grand. How fast? 00:02:23 And I said, yesterday, I said, I said, in the next 21 days, he said, oh, he said, all right. 00:02:30 And as in the second call, then I actually said, oh, by the way, how much am I paying you for? So there is that. Yeah. Because it wasn't 00:02:35 about what, what interest rate. I'm not shopping your rent. I need, I need four, $500,000 and I need it in 20 days. 00:02:41 Yeah. I, there's, there's that. And that's, that's what relationships are supposed to be like. There's value there. Yeah. There's 00:02:47 Value. And I mean, we're always working with people that we know because they've helped us build 00:02:51 their businesses to where they are. The people always worry about the ones that fly in at night and offer something that you think is too good to be true. 00:02:57 That you might burn that relationship that you've had a had a long time that got you to where you are too. 00:03:00 That's a very valid point. The old thing of like, um, hey, this, uh, this new upstart came in here 00:03:07 and offered a cheap price to my business. Like, all right, you know what? We've had a relationship for 20 or 30 years. 00:03:13 I think that, that, you know, at least I deserve a call. I can, I can see that. Yeah. 00:03:16 My friend Jeff, uh, who's a manager of a retail, and he had a sign on his wall in his office, and it said, service, price and quality pick two. 00:03:25 'cause you can't have all three. That's good. Yeah. And that, and that's a, that's a two-way street. So if, if I, I agree that we should always be price checking 00:03:32 to make sure it's fair, but sometimes that service and quality Yeah. Goes a lot further than price for me. 00:03:37 Yeah. And in today's times, with the internet and everything, we have access to, you kind of know where pricing, gar pricing is on everything. 00:03:43 We're just talking about cattle. Mm-hmm. It's a live feed. You could see what's going on all over the country, 00:03:47 different sales, you know where to go to get the best price there too. So you see it in every aspect where you're selling cattle 00:03:52 or grain or buying input input's. More transparency with that thing that's in our pocket than there's ever been. 00:03:58 I can, I can find out what Chad he, you know, was buying stuff for in North Alabama with, you know, don't take much. 00:04:05 Yeah. What about the relationships with, um, the people that work for you? You work with your cousin. If you know Joseph's your little 00:04:12 kid, you played together, then there's gotta be the work relationship. There's also the family relationship. 00:04:16 You talk about comfortable or costly. What about comfortable that I see sometimes in farming operations, it gets comfortable. 00:04:23 Then you forget the role. Like, wait a minute, you're supposed to be this person. I'm supposed to be that person. So is 00:04:29 that a, that's gotta be a challenge. Yeah. I mean, you play into that stuff and, and you know, every, every day is a new challenge with it. 00:04:35 But for the most part, you know, the family, you know, you, it's a give and take. It's just like we was talking about with the, 00:04:40 with the business side of it. You know, you gotta give it. And two, you know, you pick that person up. 00:04:45 'cause we make choices every day. You know, Stewart runs all the marketing for our farm. Yep. And, you know, he beats himself up a lot 00:04:50 because you ain't missed a nickel here. Missed a penny there. Well, a penny or two pennies is a bunch of money. 00:04:55 Yeah. And you know, I tell him all the time, like, you made the best decision you had that day at the time. You know, it's just like a cow deal. 00:05:02 You know what temple's talking about? Wait, Wait, wait. I was gonna ask about that. I, I heard of a deal just 00:05:06 before we hit the record on the, on the cameras that Kelly screwed Temple outta money. 00:05:12 And he's probably gonna say it's okay. 'cause Temple and I have a good relationship. Well, it's kind of okay because Kelly owns the cow's. 00:05:17 Like, I mean, I own, I own half the cows sold. I sold the stairs a little second. He Sold, he sold 'em, he pulled the trigger and missed it. 00:05:24 Nickel Sue, 10 cents. Whoa. You missed 10 cents. Anytime he breathe in deep, it's more than a big, 00:05:33 I probably missed 15 or 20 cents. The the market was going down and I sold the steers rather than putting 'em on the 00:05:38 auction, we put the heifers on the auction, the market came back up. Yeah. So, you know, like that, uh, that's the problem 00:05:44 with the mentality of that though, of marketing. I know that's not the topic, but the market, you know, like I know if we sold something ahead of time 00:05:50 and we saved some for the auction, you're gonna be half right and half wrong. I always notice the half wrong. Yeah. 00:05:55 Temple's notice from the half wrong too. See, always Knows the half wrong. But, you know, and, and he's learned to spread that out. 00:06:00 You know, I've watched him do this and he, he's learned to just, it's a long game. You know, it's never, it's never a, 00:06:05 it's never a short game. It seems like, you know? Well, it's a different deal, timing, timing to hit the, the peaks and, and miss the valleys. 00:06:11 It don't matter what business you're in. You're not hit all these. But at the end of the day, they 00:06:15 work together and they're related. Kelly's not related to temple, thank goodness. They work together on a daily basis with this cattle. 00:06:20 They may win big, they may lose some, but at the end of the day, they're still gonna work together because it's been a good deal for Mike. But 00:06:25 Keith, you've got a, you do a really good job with relationships. Um, and I say that 'cause you brought me into extreme ag 00:06:31 because of our relationship, which I really appreciate, and I gotta meet Johnny because of that. Yeah. Great. But, um, and me and, and Chad, of course. Yeah. 00:06:38 I was, I first come visit and you, and yet I'm the last one he talks. I, I've, I noticed that all the time too. 00:06:44 I appreciate that you said that you think you do that. I do a good job. But I'll tell you, like when you ask Chad about Stewart and stuff like that, 00:06:49 and I'm thinking about my own experiences, I, I struggle. I feel like I struggle because I put so much effort into it. 00:06:56 I, um, and I, like my toughest job is being a dad. And my second toughest job is being a boss. And, you know, like I, I just talked 00:07:04 with Richie about this the other day. I consider Richie to be like my brother. And I consider Richie to be basically my equal. 00:07:10 But yet I still have to make the decisions. I still have to do that. You know, we have, I have 150 employees throughout all the businesses, 00:07:17 and I feel like on any given day, there's probably 80 of 'em that think I'm doing something wrong. 00:07:20 And I've just learned to have to accept that. But it makes it hard on the other part of the relationships and to keep it separate. 00:07:26 Uh, but my toughest job is being a dad, but I'm also their boss. Mm-hmm. And it, it, uh, it's difficult. 00:07:32 You know, I have to wear many hats. Uh, and, and it, I put a lot of time into it. I try to communicate. 00:07:39 Vern would tell you that I over communicate at times, and I probably do, but I think that's less of a mistake than under communicating. 00:07:44 Yeah, absolutely. It, it's hard. It's really hard for me. And You look at 'em and you're thinking the whole time like, 00:07:49 Hey, I can't wait to watch you run this thing because you know, your dad's looking at you right now laughing. 00:07:55 He thought he had it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing on the relationships is, you know, we tend to be smaller town people, you know, 00:08:02 and there's a lot of good about that, just talking about you calling the banker name, name, whatever. 00:08:06 You, you know, you're friends with these people that are business people and, and all this. Um, I don't, I don't price check anymore. 00:08:14 Um, you know, I got to a point where I go to the place to buy a lawnmower and I didn't shop it. I just go in there because, and 00:08:22 so you maybe are leaving some on table, but I guess I'm kind like you, that service quality price. Like I know that this guy runs out when I'm in Arizona 00:08:32 and delivers stuff and picks up stuff. I'm not going to insult him by going in there and saying, well, somebody's $10 cheaper. 00:08:38 I just won't do it. So, I mean, there is probably, I'm leaving some money on the table, but it's all right. Uh, you're, you're leaving the money on the table in the 00:08:44 price area, but you're probably, you're making up for it in the service and the quality area. Well, I mean, you just don't want anybody to show up at your 00:08:49 house in service machinery. Yeah. You know, I mean, you need to know that, hey, you know where the key is, it's over the door, whatever. Right. You 00:08:56 Go ahead, step in. Yeah. And I, Laurie sees something on the camera, she's like, yeah, it's, it's okay. 00:09:00 It's Steve. Oh, okay. Yeah. And we, look, we're talking about the relationships on the farm, but we built relationships as a team 00:09:06 and our businesses too, because we want people that advise us financially on every aspect. We got, you know, from crop insurance to banking, 00:09:13 to marketing, whatever you're looking at. We built a team that if something was to happen to one of us today, we know they'd step in 00:09:19 and take care of our family and make sure our crop and our farming keeps going on. Because you gotta have that nowadays. 00:09:25 We got so much on the line. You need everybody to kind of know what's going on in your business. 00:09:29 And that's sometimes hard to do because some of that stuff we wanna keep to ourselves. But at the 00:09:32 End of the day, your plane goes down tomorrow, Chrissy can get on the phone with an accountant, a banker, uh, uh, probably Yeah. 00:09:40 An attorney and, and say, we have relationships with these people to take care of. Yeah. And 'cause you know, I don't have a brother 00:09:46 or cousin or anything working with me. I got my dad. He's still very involved in the farm. But outside of that, you know, 00:09:51 you want people knowing what's going on. We built our farming operations used to, in our instance, we would just hire people that could drive a tractor. 00:09:58 Now, when we go to hire people, we're hiring people for specific reasons that could help us build that business to the next level to 00:10:03 Professionals. Because That way, if you're not there, just like we're here today, we know Kelly knows Things're going fine back home. 00:10:09 I do too. And that's what you gotta have. Because once again, we might not always be here or might not always be able to take care of the situation. 00:10:15 I think the, the relationships that I value the most, and you, you have to become, you have to get to a sec, a secure spot in your life. 00:10:23 The relationships I value the most are the ones that aren't afraid to tell me I'm wrong. And that is hard 00:10:29 because a typical salesman, a typical professional, they're worried about your business and they're worried about, you know, the, 00:10:37 you're paying those people for that advice. You're paying those people for that service, for that business, and they don't wanna lose you. 00:10:42 Mm-hmm. So it's hard for them to tell you that they're wrong. You know, I, that you're wrong. Yes. 00:10:47 It's hard for them to say, it's hard for them to tell me that I'm wrong, but I need, you know, like Ben, 00:10:51 we all know Ben Hansen, my accountant, Ben's not afraid to tell me I'm wrong. And Ben, Ben has a strong opinion and I appreciate that. 00:10:58 But like Ben and Creed and Jeff Jansen and Adam All Rich, those people I Evans and gro, those people, I need to be, uh, 00:11:06 I don't mind being pushed back against because, uh, I'm not Right all the time. You know what, when I introduced topics, I said, 00:11:12 how do you keep relationship getting too comfortable and too constantly? That's a different angle on it, but it's an absolute one. 00:11:16 What do we talk about? If you read Wall Street Journal, this company is going through all kinds of financial problems. 00:11:20 Well, the board is a bunch of head TERs. Yes. Mr. Henderson. Yes. Mr. Henderson. Yes, Mr. Right. You're 00:11:26 Exactly right. A bunch of people telling no, a bunch of people telling you. You're exactly right. Yeah. If they're, if 00:11:31 that's all they're gonna do is No, they're hitting those put bobblehead around the room. 00:11:34 Right? Yeah. You Know, we, I mean we was gonna plant some corn like yesterday. You know, they talking about rain last night, 00:11:38 you talking about 30 degrees, you know, it didn't get that low, but you talking about 30 degrees in the morning and you planting a cold rain right 00:11:44 behind today is like number one. No, no. You don't plant corn. Yep. Well, you know, dad said, man, I really like planted corn, 00:11:49 but you know, I'll do whatever y'all wanna do. I said, well, you know, it's something be to be said. I said, it don't matter 00:11:55 to me if we're go plant a hundred acres, if if you can't plant a hundred acres and you can't get the planter going, then 00:12:00 what are we really doing anyway? Yeah. You know, so, I mean, there's always value and something, you just gotta find the value. 00:12:05 It it, you know, the value is not in the head nod or the value is in somebody pushing back. You know, uh, me and Stuart 00:12:10 and dad come together, you know, Jackson, even even the guys at Workforce, you know, they, we come together as a team and it's not a thing. 00:12:16 Say, well wait a minute now. And that's what Johnny was talking about. You know, you got people that's specific to jobs that Yeah. 00:12:23 You need to ask them what they think, you know? Yeah. And A lot of times you wanna surround yourself with people 00:12:27 that treat the business like it's theirs to a certain extent. Like they wanna make sure they don't make mistakes 00:12:33 that can hurt you or could hurt the whole company. Right. You know, because at the end of the day, we're all a big family. 00:12:38 Farmer's. One of the f few industries. Usually if somebody starts with you and everything stays, you know, 00:12:43 where they can stay involved in the farm from start to finish, they'll be there 10, 15, 20 years, you become like brothers. 00:12:48 And so you work together with these people every day. You spend what, 10, 12 hours a day with most of these people during the busy seasons. 00:12:54 For sure. Yeah. Right. They're your brother. They're gonna get you through these things and they're gonna have your back too. 00:12:58 And you need it. And we talked about from the banking side to the marketing side and all that, that's important too. 00:13:03 But like Chad was talking about at the farm, but people Actually are out there Yeah. Working next to you or you they're driving the tractor in 00:13:09 the field next to you, whatever. There's Uh, I mean there's, everybody on the farm has a valid point. 00:13:13 Even the guy that's mixing chemicals or doing whatever, he has a valid point. He does his job. You know, so it's, so there's no, 00:13:19 there's no wrong answers, you know, and The relationships need to get comfortable and there needs to be, do need 00:13:24 to get comfortable, especially during harvest. 'cause that's when you, you know, you've got three combines and three grain carts in the field. 00:13:29 You've got eight or 10 trucks coming back and forth. A Lot of moving parts. Lot of a little Bit of tension. Yes. Because 00:13:33 everybody gets tired. Timeline. A little bit of timeline. Timeline. And you get tired and working seven days a week. 00:13:38 Yeah. And that, that's when, uh, that's when it's okay to become comfortable because we gotta get along. Yeah. Yeah. And, but do roles. 00:13:46 I think that the challenge is to maintain that role. Like you said, Richie been with you for a long time and then you, you can, but you still are the one in charge. 00:13:55 Right. I don't wanna be though. I want, I just wanna work together here that I, but somebody has to be, I know, 00:14:00 But Kelly Wants to be able to go out of town and not get a phone call. And he can do that. Richie probably handles 00:14:05 98% of the phone calls. Richie has to call about the 2% that happens throughout the day that he just wants to make sure his decision was the right one. 00:14:12 Because it could be a bigger issue If not a lot of phone calls too. You never know though. Well, I interrupt. First take. 00:14:17 I mean, frankly, I, I'm, I'm about, but Yes, I, I have a great team at home and I I, but they know, they know that I give them the, the rope 00:14:27 to go make the decision and I'm not gonna come around and micromanage. 'cause you can't do that because that destroys that. Yeah. 00:14:32 That hurts the Team. It hurts the team. Yeah. You can't micromanage. You're talking about the relationship, 00:14:36 whether it's employee or somebody that you've been doing business for a long time. When you have to sever that, that's painful. Yeah. 00:14:42 That's, that's hard for all of us. I mean, even if you think you're a hard ass and you say, I gotta fire somebody, 00:14:46 or I'm not gonna work with this person anymore. I've done business with for 20 years. It gives me a stomach ache. 00:14:53 You know, people think I can be kind of a, a testy. SOB you. Yeah. I can be testy, but also would I have to seven? 00:15:00 Would I have to seven could, yeah. And is Yes, Snap Words, words of choice. Yeah. Okay. You 00:15:09 Said I have a test. ESOA. Yeah. But if I had to, if I had to terminate a relationship, it, it, uh, 00:15:15 it gives me a little, it gives me a, gives us all stomach a ache. Right. I never thought I'd have a business where I've had 00:15:19 to fire people and I, I've had to fire people and then I don't enjoy it. Yeah. But you, you have to, you know, 00:15:25 like if a truck driver's not being safe or something like that, that puts everybody at risk. Yeah. And people know. And that's 00:15:30 where you can't let your guard down on that. The worst thing you can do is keep somebody there for a longer period of time. 00:15:35 Because your relationship, you've been friends for five years, it turns into seven and the issue still hasn't gone away. 00:15:40 Yeah. It's a tough call. 'cause a lot of times, people that work with us, people we grew up with or we've known our whole lives. 00:15:45 That's exactly. And Then you end up losing the folks that are quality in your business, you know, that just can't, that just, it can't tolerate anymore. 00:15:51 Yeah. So in other words, if you don't, if you don't cut the cancer out, then you, then it spreads. Right? Yeah. 00:15:55 You know, and then like, well, we didn't let 'em go 'cause we're friends. Well, if you were really friends, they 00:15:59 would've been doing a better job for you. They'd have been looking out for you the way you're looking out for them. 00:16:02 And that's not a 50 50 relationship. I Brought this up to you, uh, a year or two ago. I said, you, you've got this person that you know, 00:16:10 that you're also putting in this role. I said, what happens when this blows up? And you, you said, well, there's less chance of 00:16:17 that probably than if, uh, with somebody off the street, I think is what you told me about. Right? 00:16:22 Because if the intertwined relationship, if it doesn't work out and you gotta fire him, it's painful. But sometimes the juice is worth the squeeze. What's 00:16:29 Your key, Chad, what do you do to make sure that on, on on, not, not the employees, but the ones you're customer, you know, you're a customer 00:16:37 of, they, they are a vendor to you. 'cause you buy a lot of stuff. Um, they come and call you, you know, 00:16:45 maybe they take you fishing or whatever. Um, how do you keep it so that there's still the business side of it that doesn't get to where like the, 00:16:53 all of a sudden there's 20 grand extra goes out the door because of that? Well, you know, E let's just take it the first part of the question. 00:17:00 Let's, let's take the part that's, um, how do you keep all this together? You know, whether it's, whether it's, you know, the mine 00:17:05 and dad and Jack Stewart's relationship, all of us together. You know, the one thing that I, I try to tell myself over 00:17:11 and over, I know they don't think I do. I promise y'all I do. You know, uh, is to be open-minded, you know, I mean, to be open-minded. 00:17:17 Everybody has a value. Everybody has a input. You know, all of us there can be openly minded. Um, the next part is it's gotta be business. 00:17:24 It's gotta be math on that part. When you get to a, to a side of it, if that, like, it's like the point Kelly made. 00:17:30 You know, if they're truly looking out for you Yeah. Then they're gonna understand when you can't buy, there's certain products that I can't buy from my guy 00:17:36 that I buy 70% of stuff for the last five years. It's like, you know, I can't buy this and this from you, like this other company 00:17:42 every year is gonna have the right thing. And I'm like, you gonna buy some, you know, I'll just buy it and sell it to you. 00:17:46 Yeah. But you know, I think when it's a, when you have true friends in that and people that are looking out for you, this, this, 00:17:52 what we're talking about is not hard because they understand it. That's a good relationship. You know? 'cause 00:17:56 they've got to keep your business. They gotta keep you in business because it's a long play. Yep. 00:18:01 Yeah. So I don't Think the relationship never gets too comfortable. 'cause long as everybody does their job 00:18:05 and remains professional, I'm in a different thing. I don't have, you know, millions of dollars of crop inputs that I buy the way you guys do. 00:18:11 But with my little business, I have plenty of people that I am a customer of. And, uh, I, 00:18:18 I don't give everybody a hundred percent of my business. You know, it's a little bit like the farmer that makes sure 00:18:22 he buys from two seed companies or whatever. I make sure that there's always a little, there's, there's always someone else spreads lover. 00:18:28 Yeah. A little bit. Because French lover, right? It's, it's, it's diversification of, of relation. Right. That's a good idea. And, and, 00:18:34 and it's silly to is, but you wanna make sure 'cause And you can't burn that bridge. No. You know, don't be 00:18:38 that one time when this person's out this stuff and you're gonna be like, Hey, I, I got keep spraying. You know? So Exactly 00:18:43 I saying, putting all your eggs in one basket doesn't work. And it, and it's, and it's real life. 00:18:46 And I mean, sales can come and go, but the good ones always seem to stay around. And there's, somebody may come in and be cheaper than them 00:18:52 and a lot of times you go talk to 'em, say, Hey, this guy here was at this price. He'll say, lemme see what I can do. 00:18:57 A lot of times he's having to ask for permission or try to see if he can get the same deal that these other people are getting. 00:19:01 It's the, the retail world's not fair. No. You know, it's, it's, I guess that's the simplest it's experience. That's experience. 00:19:08 You've got a really comfortable relationship with, uh, Brian, who's my buddy. That's right. Uh, he's your only buddy, right? 00:19:14 He's my only buddy. Yeah. Yeah. He really Is. Anyway, How do you make it so that you Good buddy Dad only Best's, right? That's 00:19:20 Right. You and Brian hang out. You and Brian are friendly. You, Brian also is a subservient to you. 00:19:25 He works for you and, and your business. How do you make it so that, I mean, I I'm guessing you don't remind him every day I'm your 00:19:32 boss or things you don't have to. Uh, but how's it work Now when you hire the right people, like me and Brian started together seven, eight years ago. 00:19:39 Now, you know, he's driven, he knows what he needs to be doing. He's educated more than me in a lot of areas. 00:19:45 So as a partnership, we're a great deal. You know, I may own the company, but together we're partners. 00:19:50 And if you ever hear me talk about it, we, I talk about my team and how we're all a partner in this 00:19:55 business and how it's our business. Because at the end of the day, without your team, you really don't have a business. 00:20:00 And I mean, I'm not gonna say there's not been hiccups with farming or any type of business that we're in. You're always gonna have something that you 00:20:05 gotta address and mm-hmm. It's always uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, if you start something off and you hire the right people, it makes a big difference. 00:20:12 And one thing I've learned, I don't know, 10 years ago, is when I wanna hire somebody, I wanna go pick who I want. A lot of times I'll say, I need to hire a new mechanic, 00:20:22 or I need to hire this. I'm gonna go find the mechanic I want and go hire him. And so, like when we started up volunteer ag service, 00:20:28 I needed somebody that was a great agronomist. And so that was the fit for Brian. That's what he had a degree in. 00:20:33 He had his PhD and all that stuff. So I made sure that when we did our deal and we had it worked out, he was the lead agronomist. 00:20:38 He was gonna run that side of it. We hired salesmen and stuff like that to work with us. And it's been a good deal and 00:20:43 it's evolved to where it is now. But whether it's the farm or whatever, you know, one of the last guys 00:20:48 that came on the farm, you know, he, he was like basically an electrician. You know, he, he could do electrician, he could do plumbing, 00:20:54 he could do all this type thing. That's a huge part of our business now. Especially when you got pivots and you've got grain bins 00:21:00 and all this stuff going on. I wanted to make sure when I, when he came and talked to me, I was like, this is what I'm hiring you 00:21:05 for, because this is one of the biggest expenses I have. So where I'm going with that is I just make sure people 00:21:09 understand that if you hire the right partners and you hire people that you want and not people that you just 00:21:14 select because that's all it applied. It makes your life a lot easier. If you start off on the right foot with the right people, 00:21:19 You find a role. But the role evolves. I imagine somebody like Brian, he's, he's, he's not just doing soil samples. 00:21:26 I mean the role evolves, but that, I think the relationship allows for that. That's right. And I mean, it's constantly changing. 00:21:32 Where we started from to where we are now, didn't even look the same in seven years. And it's, you gotta have people that are willing to evolve. 00:21:37 'cause some people, when they get hired on, they don't wanna ever do nothing. You know, they, they wanna do the one thing you 00:21:42 asked them for, and that's it. Fact worker Mentality. And, and that's hard to do in the business 00:21:46 that we're in. That's All. Do You know, very few of our farm, you know, employees do the same thing every day. Very 00:21:52 Few. And most of em like that, that most of the farm employees like that. And I, I agree with what you're saying about the extra 00:21:57 And then also there's a lot of different things to be Like the mechanic work that we do can do the carpentry work, the plumbing, the electrical, 00:22:03 the welding, all of that. Yeah. All of those skills are very, very beneficial. Especially in my area where it's beginning to be more 00:22:09 and more rural, less and less people. It's very nice to be self-sufficient. Did you See somebody like me or him with a mentality 00:22:14 that we have having go in and put part on a assembly line every day? Mm-hmm. Dang. 00:22:21 I worked in, I worked in a factory for three summers. 10. And toward the end, I, 00:22:25 I thought I was really gonna lose my mind because my favorite one was the one that was physically taxing. 00:22:31 'cause if it was gonna be mindless work, at least it was a workout. Yeah. Like taking boxes and stacking 'em on kids. 00:22:36 It wore you out. But at least you were doing physical work. The one that the old factory will wanna do, 00:22:41 looking at a piece of ceiling tile to make sure it didn't have any holes in it. And putting on another piece all day. 00:22:47 I I, I, I lose my mind. Mine stand still, White ceiling tile. If that's all you got to do, time just stands still. 00:22:53 Oh, it doesn't ever progress. And gosh, when is this day gonna be over? But Those are some of the great, the best people. 00:22:58 When you find out you're needing to hire somebody. If you can find somebody that's been in the factory life for 10, 15 years, a lot of times they're well versed. 00:23:05 Most the time they've done electrical, they've done welding, they've done plumbing. Not Other ceiling tile source. They this. 00:23:10 See, I wouldn't have hired you, Damien. Yeah, yeah. You've Hired Yeah. I would've never hired Damien. But at the end of the day, at least I knew 00:23:16 you could do the same thing over and over. Not very well. Not very well. They killed me. They crushed my spirit one day. 00:23:21 They said I crushed my spirit and I I had to quit a week early. 'cause I'm like, I can't do it. 00:23:25 I used to take a year's worth of, uh, national Geographics and books in there and read 'em. 00:23:29 I get all my line caught up. I'd read a page. Foreman came over and said, there's no reading anymore. You must as well just gotten a gun to put it in my head. 00:23:37 All right. All right. Now the one thing I had was in between catching up on the line every 23 minutes I'd actually read a page. 00:23:43 Now I can't do that. Anyway, that's not about relationships. Go ahead. You said That you working at 00:23:48 that factory was gonna make you lose your mind. I think there's some residual effects. Yeah. Well, yeah. I, I, I mean I bean if I'd 00:23:54 Have gone there a fourth summer Lost. Yeah. 00:23:55.995 --> 00:23:56.285 What's the key that, uh, what do you know, 00:23:59 keep relationships are getting to where they're too comparable to where they're costly and it, it's, again, it's not financial. 00:24:05 Sometimes it's grief. Right. Communication. Yeah. Kelly said it best just then. I mean, if you start seeing problems 00:24:10 or having problems, it's easier to address on the front end because they only get bigger. Yeah. And they're not the most 00:24:15 comfortable conversations we can have. I mean, sometimes you have to go in and talk to somebody or say, we're about to demote you, 00:24:20 we're about to do this or that. And those are not easy conversations, especially when they work 00:24:24 with you a while and stuff like that. But at the end, Firing is probably easier. 'cause then the person leaves. If you've gotta go in 00:24:29 and take somebody down a notch that Yeah. I Think I would never demote anybody. I, I've never been in a 00:24:35 situation where I wanna demote anybody. If that needs to be done, they just need to go because It just gonna end up being Yeah. 00:24:41 The problem's still there. If you demote, if I would demote somebody and the person that then is above them, 00:24:45 they're in a lame duck position and now you've set two people up to fail. Yeah, that makes sense. Chances I maybe didn't lose my 00:24:53 mind, maybe I did work in that fast. Residual effects. There's definitely residual face. I mean, it looks like, you know, it's kinda like pigweed, 00:25:01 you know, when you spray it and you kill this one part of it, and then the other part, greens out the side. 00:25:05 You know, that's So you still not just part over here though, you know, it's still hanging out. It's probably asbestos too. Yeah, no, that's, yeah. 00:25:13 Alright. We're talking about relationships with the guys here at the green. Me. Huh? They keep 'em from 00:25:17 getting too comfortable, too costly. You have a lot of relationships because all the people you do business with, 00:25:21 if you have employees, you have those relationships all of a sudden. Don't forget, there's the family aspect of it. 00:25:24 Chad Farms with his family, he farms with his family, he farm with your father. Still. There's relationships there. 00:25:29 So anyway, speaking of relationships, we hope you have a great relationship with us here at The Green. 00:25:32 We were inviting you every week to come here, pull up a chair figuratively, and sit right here to greener with us. 00:25:37 My friend, Kelly Garrett, Chad Anderson, Johnny Verell. Go to our YouTube channel if you've not already. And hit subscribe and cost anything. 00:25:43 Also remember, check out all the great content, cutting the curve, the videos. These guys shoot all extreme ag.forum. 812 00:25:47.605 --> 00:25:49.305