Dec. 20, 2025

EXPERIENCE 249 | Don’t Feed Your Cows Candy! - with Kevin Pallaoro, CEO of Grass Fed Foods, Inc.

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Season 5

In this episode of The Loco Experience podcast, I sat down with Kevin Pallaoro, the CEO of Grass Fed Foods. Kevin shares his journey from growing up on a ranch in Salida, Colorado to becoming a leader in the natural beef industry.  Did you know that Salida was heavily settled by Italian immigrants? - well you do now.  

We delve into the history and operations of Grass Fed Foods and its brands Teton Waters Ranch and Sun Fed Ranch.  Kevin's passion for healthy, sustainable food is evident as he discusses challenges in the industry, including the economics of beef production and honoring commitments to animal welfare and environmental sustainability.  Did you know that most “grass fed beef” in the US is fed pelletized grass in a feedlot?!  

We also explored Kevin’s family and career path, from financial roles in various food companies, including a season in Germany - to his current leadership position and how he ascended to the role.  Kevin emphasizes the importance of balancing work and family, and drawing wisdom from  experience and from mentors.  Overall, it's a rich conversation about values, business strategy, and the drive to make a difference in the food industry.  So please join me in enjoying my conversation with Kevin Pallaoro.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.450 --> 00:00:06.269
In this episode of the Loco Experience Podcast, I sat down with Kevin Palero, the CEO of Grass Fed Foods.

00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:12.929
Kevin shares his journey from growing up on a ranch in Salida, Colorado to becoming a leader in the natural beef industry.

00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:16.739
Did you know that Salida was heavily settled by Italian immigrants?

00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:17.910
Well, you do now.

00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:24.870
We delve into the history and operations of grass fed foods and its brands, Teton Waters Ranch and SunEd Ranch.

00:00:25.589 --> 00:00:36.200
Kevin's passion for healthy, sustainable food is evident as he discusses challenges in the industry, including the economics of beef production and honoring commitments to animal welfare and environmental sustainability.

00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:43.115
Did you know that most, quote unquote, grass fed beef in the US is fed pelletized grass in a feedlot?

00:00:44.615 --> 00:00:55.145
We also explored Kevin's family and career path from financial roles in various food companies, including a season in Germany to his current leadership position and how he ascended to the CEO role.

00:00:56.435 --> 00:01:03.875
Kevin emphasizes the importance of balancing work and family and drawing wisdom from experience and from mentors overall.

00:01:03.875 --> 00:01:08.765
It's a rich conversation about values, business strategy, and the drive to make a difference in the food industry.

00:01:09.245 --> 00:01:12.575
So please join me in enjoying my conversation with Kevin Palero.

00:01:13.483 --> 00:01:14.173
Let's have some fun.

00:01:21.987 --> 00:01:23.847
Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast.

00:01:24.328 --> 00:01:29.037
On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond.

00:01:29.727 --> 00:01:34.617
Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy.

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And through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained.

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These conversations are real and raw, and no topics are off limits.

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So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest.

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Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast.

00:01:51.524 --> 00:01:53.474
My guest today is Kevin Palero.

00:01:53.804 --> 00:01:56.144
And Kevin is the CEO of Grass Fed Foods.

00:01:57.028 --> 00:01:57.599
Welcome to the show.

00:01:58.168 --> 00:01:58.978
Glad to be here.

00:01:59.159 --> 00:01:59.849
Very exciting.

00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:01.528
Uh, sit down with you, Kurt.

00:02:01.618 --> 00:02:01.948
Yeah.

00:02:02.399 --> 00:02:04.709
Well, I love grass fed beef.

00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:08.308
Uh, and so that's what you know more about than anybody I've met.

00:02:08.308 --> 00:02:11.218
So it seems to me a good chance for us both to learn.

00:02:11.729 --> 00:02:11.818
Yeah.

00:02:11.848 --> 00:02:18.808
Um, tell, tell me and our listeners about, uh, what brands and how would people recognize grass fed foods?

00:02:18.808 --> 00:02:19.408
What are you up to?

00:02:19.528 --> 00:02:19.649
Yeah.

00:02:19.649 --> 00:02:22.739
So Grass Fed Foods, it's basically a holding company.

00:02:23.248 --> 00:02:25.949
We have two grass fed beef brands today.

00:02:26.008 --> 00:02:26.489
Okay.

00:02:26.579 --> 00:02:29.639
Uh, the largest one is Teton Waters Ranch.

00:02:29.818 --> 00:02:30.058
Okay.

00:02:30.118 --> 00:02:36.058
So Teton does grass fed hot dogs, sausages, burger patties, breakfast sausage.

00:02:36.149 --> 00:02:36.479
Okay.

00:02:36.778 --> 00:02:37.318
Uh,

00:02:37.588 --> 00:02:43.919
and when I buy these at King Super or Costco, or at more like Whole Foods or at restaurants.

00:02:44.278 --> 00:02:46.199
Uh, all except for restaurants.

00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:48.028
So we're in King Soopers, we're in Costco.

00:02:48.028 --> 00:02:48.088
Okay.

00:02:48.088 --> 00:02:49.769
We're in Whole Foods Sprouts.

00:02:49.799 --> 00:02:50.609
Okay.

00:02:50.609 --> 00:02:50.618
Okay.

00:02:50.729 --> 00:02:54.628
Kind of a across the nation, most retailers.

00:02:54.658 --> 00:02:55.019
Okay.

00:02:55.378 --> 00:02:57.299
Uh, no food service today.

00:02:57.419 --> 00:02:57.718
Okay.

00:02:57.838 --> 00:02:58.199
Alright.

00:02:58.378 --> 00:03:07.109
But so that's your, you're ultimately, your, your, uh, distributor to those grocery enterprises of these products, but you're, well, you build the products too,

00:03:07.498 --> 00:03:08.038
correct?

00:03:08.098 --> 00:03:08.278
Yeah.

00:03:08.308 --> 00:03:08.639
Correct.

00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:13.258
So we don't, we don't process any of the cattle ourselves, so we don't have cattle.

00:03:13.528 --> 00:03:13.859
Sure.

00:03:14.429 --> 00:03:17.639
The company started with cattle years and years and years ago, but Okay.

00:03:17.729 --> 00:03:21.538
It outgrew the cattle and, you know, we Oh, really?

00:03:21.834 --> 00:03:21.959
Like it was

00:03:21.959 --> 00:03:27.299
a ranch that started this brand and then they're like, we don't have enough cows to keep making enough hot dogs.

00:03:27.359 --> 00:03:27.868
Correct.

00:03:27.868 --> 00:03:28.139
Yeah.

00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:31.378
So originally the name Teton Waters Ranch Sure.

00:03:31.378 --> 00:03:36.028
Came from a ranch in the Tetons sounds that the Teton River ran through.

00:03:36.179 --> 00:03:36.269
Yep.

00:03:36.598 --> 00:03:38.188
Hence the name Teton Waters Ranch.

00:03:38.248 --> 00:03:43.318
Um, they bought the ranch originally for real estate and development.

00:03:43.364 --> 00:03:43.454
Hmm.

00:03:44.234 --> 00:03:45.554
It's on the Idaho side.

00:03:46.033 --> 00:03:47.804
Was an old pot potato farm for

00:03:47.804 --> 00:03:48.913
Victor kind of thing.

00:03:48.913 --> 00:03:51.253
Or over more by Driggs or over there.

00:03:51.283 --> 00:03:51.674
Yeah.

00:03:51.734 --> 00:03:52.093
Gotcha.

00:03:52.153 --> 00:03:52.514
Toton.

00:03:52.514 --> 00:03:55.093
Yeah, that was, that was long before my teia is where I had my honeymoon.

00:03:55.213 --> 00:03:55.843
Oh, what really?

00:03:55.843 --> 00:03:56.324
Yeah.

00:03:56.324 --> 00:03:56.334
Yeah.

00:03:56.473 --> 00:03:57.074
Right up in there.

00:03:57.524 --> 00:03:58.604
I've been over to that side

00:03:58.604 --> 00:04:00.554
and I've actually floated canoe in the Teton River.

00:04:00.554 --> 00:04:04.544
It was where my wife accused me of being an idiot because I couldn't make a canoe go straight in a river.

00:04:05.609 --> 00:04:07.063
I never did it before in a river.

00:04:07.063 --> 00:04:07.903
It was way different though.

00:04:07.903 --> 00:04:09.973
Like, anyway, I digress.

00:04:10.063 --> 00:04:11.054
No, no, it's all good.

00:04:11.084 --> 00:04:12.433
So it starts over there.

00:04:12.438 --> 00:04:13.209
They're starts over there.

00:04:13.209 --> 00:04:17.564
They're like, we need a higher value output for our awesome cow kind of products or?

00:04:17.564 --> 00:04:20.113
No, so, so they bought it for real estate development.

00:04:20.293 --> 00:04:20.744
Okay.

00:04:20.744 --> 00:04:25.303
And they were going to subdivide it from, this was long before my time, so yeah.

00:04:25.334 --> 00:04:27.374
I just kind of gather any errors or emissions or

00:04:27.374 --> 00:04:28.363
just what I gather.

00:04:28.394 --> 00:04:28.663
Yeah.

00:04:28.663 --> 00:04:30.163
What I've gathered over the years.

00:04:30.163 --> 00:04:35.744
Um, so they bought it for a real estate development and then that's when the market had crashed back in like.

00:04:37.019 --> 00:04:38.428
I wanna say it was like 2008.

00:04:38.668 --> 00:04:38.848
Yeah.

00:04:38.848 --> 00:04:39.238
Probably.

00:04:39.658 --> 00:04:44.788
And so they said, boy, you know, we've got a lot of money tied up in this.

00:04:44.788 --> 00:04:45.418
Yeah, exactly.

00:04:45.418 --> 00:04:46.408
A lot of money tied up.

00:04:47.069 --> 00:04:58.139
And it really wasn't good for potato farming anymore because you know, when you kind of monocrop for years and years and years and years, the land goes a little bit fallow.

00:04:58.319 --> 00:04:58.528
Mm-hmm.

00:04:58.978 --> 00:04:59.968
And so, oh,

00:04:59.968 --> 00:05:01.019
so it'd been kind of burned up.

00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:02.218
Burned up potato farming.

00:05:02.488 --> 00:05:02.759
Yep.

00:05:03.028 --> 00:05:05.548
Too many years of ag chemicals.

00:05:05.819 --> 00:05:06.028
Yep.

00:05:06.059 --> 00:05:07.079
Monocropping.

00:05:07.858 --> 00:05:11.158
And they decided to start raising beef Okay.

00:05:11.158 --> 00:05:13.619
On it and doing grass fed beef.

00:05:13.949 --> 00:05:19.499
And as the years kind of went on, the worms started to come back into the land.

00:05:19.499 --> 00:05:21.059
'cause they weren't spraying ag chems.

00:05:21.119 --> 00:05:21.329
Yeah.

00:05:21.749 --> 00:05:24.358
Uh, wildlife started coming back.

00:05:24.358 --> 00:05:29.488
So they were starting to see more deer and eagles and all the natural wildlife coming in.

00:05:30.704 --> 00:05:32.713
The ground just started to regenerate.

00:05:32.774 --> 00:05:33.014
Yeah.

00:05:33.223 --> 00:05:34.903
Hence the term regenerative ag.

00:05:35.053 --> 00:05:35.384
Sure.

00:05:35.624 --> 00:05:42.103
And so as the land could handle more and more cattle,'cause the cattle were helping the land regenerate through their Sure.

00:05:42.374 --> 00:05:43.798
Natural manure stuff.

00:05:43.798 --> 00:05:52.213
They're manure and the like, one thing about, you know, beef that helps the regeneration, it's just the pressing of the hooves down into the ground to help open it up.

00:05:52.213 --> 00:05:54.074
It's called like natural variation.

00:05:54.074 --> 00:05:54.343
It's like

00:05:54.343 --> 00:05:59.653
where we, uh, run those little thingies to throw like those goose turd looking things around our lawns.

00:05:59.653 --> 00:05:59.744
Right.

00:05:59.744 --> 00:05:59.983
Exactly.

00:05:59.983 --> 00:06:00.793
It's a little bit of that.

00:06:01.514 --> 00:06:05.879
And so while the market was down, they kind of regenerated this ranch.

00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:06.158
Mm-hmm.

00:06:06.314 --> 00:06:10.153
And they were holding more and more cattle and they're like, yeah, we should sell this grass fed beef.

00:06:10.244 --> 00:06:10.663
Okay.

00:06:10.723 --> 00:06:11.384
Into the market.

00:06:11.384 --> 00:06:13.903
So they took it into like Jackson Hole.

00:06:14.293 --> 00:06:14.624
Sure.

00:06:14.954 --> 00:06:16.153
High end restaurants.

00:06:16.244 --> 00:06:20.713
Started marketing it there and did really, really well.

00:06:20.718 --> 00:06:20.959
Yeah.

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And at some point they're like, Hey, we need a bigger market than just.

00:06:26.459 --> 00:06:27.718
Idaho Jackson Hole.

00:06:27.778 --> 00:06:28.228
Yeah.

00:06:28.228 --> 00:06:28.238
Yeah.

00:06:28.408 --> 00:06:30.569
So they moved the company to Denver.

00:06:30.988 --> 00:06:31.379
Okay.

00:06:31.499 --> 00:06:33.838
And started processing more, buying

00:06:33.838 --> 00:06:35.069
other people's beef and stuff too.

00:06:35.069 --> 00:06:35.668
Exactly.

00:06:36.329 --> 00:06:44.759
And one thing about the beef industry that's pretty challenging is unlike any, under any other industry out there.

00:06:44.788 --> 00:06:50.278
Like there's, there's a few, but it's the dissection, not the putting together.

00:06:50.278 --> 00:06:54.298
So like if you think about building a car, you're buying all these pieces of parts

00:06:54.329 --> 00:06:54.749
Okay.

00:06:54.869 --> 00:06:55.858
To have one output.

00:06:55.949 --> 00:06:56.338
Right.

00:06:56.428 --> 00:06:58.288
So I bought 10,000 pieces.

00:06:58.293 --> 00:06:58.324
Yeah.

00:06:58.324 --> 00:06:58.918
And the high value

00:06:58.918 --> 00:07:00.418
output is the car.

00:07:00.478 --> 00:07:01.168
The car.

00:07:01.678 --> 00:07:04.949
And when you think about like animal proteins Yeah.

00:07:05.278 --> 00:07:12.119
There's not a lot of things where you're like, I bought the car, but I'm really in the business selling, like the value is really tearing it down.

00:07:12.209 --> 00:07:12.418
Yeah.

00:07:12.418 --> 00:07:15.178
The mirrors and the, the engine.

00:07:15.298 --> 00:07:15.538
Right.

00:07:15.598 --> 00:07:16.649
And all these pieces,

00:07:16.649 --> 00:07:18.598
the loins and the ribs and the whatever.

00:07:18.629 --> 00:07:19.499
Exactly.

00:07:20.038 --> 00:07:20.488
And so.

00:07:21.343 --> 00:07:28.093
That's the hardest thing when it comes to like animal proteins, is you have to have a home for every single pound.

00:07:28.274 --> 00:07:28.423
Mm-hmm.

00:07:28.663 --> 00:07:29.653
Because you bought the car.

00:07:30.524 --> 00:07:33.704
If you can't sell the transmission, you're probably gonna lose money.

00:07:33.764 --> 00:07:34.244
Sure.

00:07:34.423 --> 00:07:34.754
Yeah.

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And that's kind of why that happens.

00:07:35.903 --> 00:07:36.048
Yeah.

00:07:36.053 --> 00:07:39.194
That's your profit margin basically is if you can't sell any of the transmissions.

00:07:39.553 --> 00:07:40.363
Exactly.

00:07:40.363 --> 00:07:40.514
You know,

00:07:40.874 --> 00:07:43.843
and it, it kind of even boils down to like the mirrors.

00:07:43.903 --> 00:07:43.994
Yeah.

00:07:43.994 --> 00:07:44.923
Like the littlest parts.

00:07:44.923 --> 00:07:49.033
Like unless you can do something of high value for every single piece

00:07:49.153 --> 00:07:49.514
Right.

00:07:49.603 --> 00:07:50.204
It's not gonna work.

00:07:50.204 --> 00:07:50.744
That's interesting.

00:07:50.774 --> 00:08:07.334
Well, it kind of, you know, I'm from North Dakota and have processed a number of deer over the years, you know, where, you know, we never did use the guts for anything, but some people, I suppose could make sausage out of it and stuff and you know, the Native Americans would use virtually every part of the bison.

00:08:07.543 --> 00:08:07.723
Yep.

00:08:07.994 --> 00:08:08.504
Right.

00:08:08.624 --> 00:08:12.194
Um, and that skillset is largely gone.

00:08:12.194 --> 00:08:15.524
Like if you dropped a whole cow in my.

00:08:15.733 --> 00:08:17.024
F backyard.

00:08:18.163 --> 00:08:20.084
Like I would actually know what to do with it.

00:08:20.084 --> 00:08:24.403
'cause I've been there with, you know, a bunch of deer over the years and stuff.

00:08:24.403 --> 00:08:24.463
Yeah.

00:08:24.463 --> 00:08:27.644
And I'm, I know what beef costs and I'm not gonna let anything go to waste hardly.

00:08:27.644 --> 00:08:29.144
But that's gonna be a chore.

00:08:29.144 --> 00:08:36.163
And I wouldn't know really what I was doing, you know, getting those t-bones and ribeyes accurately and things like that.

00:08:36.163 --> 00:08:39.374
I wouldn't have the foggiest of where to go get those things hardly.

00:08:40.094 --> 00:08:41.323
It's, it's tough.

00:08:41.443 --> 00:08:41.774
Yeah.

00:08:41.864 --> 00:08:46.484
I actually, I went out, uh, we have a local wrench, just my family.

00:08:46.573 --> 00:08:46.754
Mm-hmm.

00:08:47.144 --> 00:08:49.394
And I went out last weekend and got an elk.

00:08:49.453 --> 00:08:49.903
Oh, you did?

00:08:49.903 --> 00:08:50.504
Congratulations.

00:08:50.504 --> 00:08:50.563
Yeah.

00:08:50.563 --> 00:08:51.014
Thank you.

00:08:51.073 --> 00:08:51.433
Sweet.

00:08:51.494 --> 00:08:52.783
You should have brought me some milk steaks.

00:08:52.844 --> 00:08:53.293
I should have.

00:08:54.119 --> 00:08:56.323
It was just to put some, some meat in the freezer.

00:08:57.374 --> 00:08:57.524
Yeah.

00:08:57.524 --> 00:08:57.543
That's awesome.

00:08:57.543 --> 00:08:57.823
And we do

00:08:57.823 --> 00:08:58.514
it all ourselves.

00:08:58.514 --> 00:09:00.433
Like we process it in our house and.

00:09:00.854 --> 00:09:06.524
And it's kind of funny'cause like there's a lot of times like, ah, I'm pretty sure this is the, uh, sirloin, but

00:09:06.974 --> 00:09:07.153
Right.

00:09:07.394 --> 00:09:07.604
Yeah.

00:09:08.053 --> 00:09:09.193
You know, so it goes at

00:09:09.193 --> 00:09:10.484
some point you're like, ah,

00:09:10.724 --> 00:09:19.844
so do you, do you make sausage out of it too, you know, and all, or you mostly just use it as either ground beef, ground beef equivalent or for the elk take the steaks and stuff?

00:09:19.844 --> 00:09:20.083
Yeah,

00:09:20.173 --> 00:09:20.413
yeah.

00:09:20.413 --> 00:09:22.428
And just do grinds and head steaks and yeah.

00:09:22.428 --> 00:09:26.114
In all transparency, working in the sausage business, I eat more sausage than I can

00:09:27.043 --> 00:09:28.629
less sausage please and be Okay.

00:09:28.629 --> 00:09:28.639
Yeah.

00:09:29.114 --> 00:09:30.943
Because we sample things every single week.

00:09:30.943 --> 00:09:36.283
So my sausage consumption's probably like in the 99th percentile of the US Americans as it is

00:09:37.094 --> 00:09:40.183
in my, uh, relatively brief food trucking days.

00:09:40.183 --> 00:09:50.594
I had, um, a number of, uh, snarky titles for my menu items, but one was the, the special Sausage of the Week at Sprout's Farmer's Market.

00:09:51.163 --> 00:09:52.514
Like whatever they had on sale.

00:09:52.543 --> 00:09:52.754
Yep.

00:09:52.964 --> 00:09:54.583
That was my sausage I was featuring.

00:09:54.583 --> 00:09:57.193
And so the menu item was called Sausage party.

00:09:57.793 --> 00:09:58.364
Okay.

00:09:58.364 --> 00:09:58.514
And I

00:09:58.514 --> 00:10:07.394
don't know if you know what a sausage party is, depends on where you went to college or high school perhaps, but suggest you do so it's like nobody likes a sausage party, really.

00:10:09.193 --> 00:10:10.244
Anyway, I digress.

00:10:10.724 --> 00:10:19.844
So these ranchers, like they, they had enough success in whatever their secret sauce was in both raising cows, but also creating products.

00:10:19.933 --> 00:10:20.533
Correct.

00:10:20.774 --> 00:10:27.823
So like, they had moved to Denver, tried to expand the market and where I was going with the, the splitting of the animal Yeah.

00:10:28.153 --> 00:10:32.384
Was they developed, you know, originally a really good market for all the stakes.

00:10:32.774 --> 00:10:32.864
Mm-hmm.

00:10:33.403 --> 00:10:38.563
But they were having a hard time selling everything that's not, that everything el that wasn't the high end stakes.

00:10:38.563 --> 00:10:38.803
Yeah.

00:10:39.583 --> 00:10:45.073
And so they had a good idea to go into making sausages with everything else.

00:10:45.073 --> 00:10:45.313
Sure.

00:10:46.408 --> 00:10:46.629
And.

00:10:47.563 --> 00:10:49.813
The sausages just exploded.

00:10:49.964 --> 00:10:50.114
Hmm.

00:10:50.173 --> 00:10:58.933
And before you knew it, they had a sausage business that could be 20 times the steak business.

00:10:58.933 --> 00:10:59.594
Wow.

00:10:59.923 --> 00:11:02.024
And you can't kill cattle just to make sausage.

00:11:02.053 --> 00:11:02.354
Right.

00:11:02.354 --> 00:11:02.833
Totally.

00:11:03.134 --> 00:11:14.024
And so it kind of like slowly progressed from, you know, harvesting your own cattle to buying, you know, the pieces from other people to help them enable their steak business.

00:11:14.083 --> 00:11:14.144
Yeah.

00:11:14.474 --> 00:11:15.583
And you're Oh, cool.

00:11:15.644 --> 00:11:18.254
Part of an entire ecosystem Yeah.

00:11:18.433 --> 00:11:20.864
To help the entire industry raise.

00:11:20.923 --> 00:11:21.403
Right.

00:11:21.403 --> 00:11:22.813
So it is a really cool win.

00:11:22.813 --> 00:11:23.533
Well, for everybody,

00:11:23.624 --> 00:11:26.803
every producer, every cow calf operator, every grow lot.

00:11:27.344 --> 00:11:32.594
Like being able to sell those premium state cuts is, is a big, important thing.

00:11:32.803 --> 00:11:33.043
Yep.

00:11:33.313 --> 00:11:39.583
But getting rid of all the mirrors and the transmissions and the spare seats and whatever, that's really where the margin is.

00:11:39.644 --> 00:11:39.854
Yeah.

00:11:40.094 --> 00:11:41.264
I mean, cool.

00:11:41.264 --> 00:11:43.274
The protein industry's super low margin.

00:11:43.333 --> 00:11:43.663
Right.

00:11:43.663 --> 00:11:45.854
Industry like food.

00:11:46.244 --> 00:11:47.053
Food in general.

00:11:47.413 --> 00:11:48.464
Very low margin.

00:11:48.823 --> 00:11:48.913
Yeah.

00:11:48.913 --> 00:11:51.254
So when you're taking those things apart

00:11:52.004 --> 00:11:52.303
Yeah.

00:11:52.364 --> 00:11:54.823
If you don't have a home for every single pound, like,

00:11:54.884 --> 00:11:58.604
so do you guys still move steaks and sausages and stuff?

00:11:58.604 --> 00:12:01.543
Or is it mostly just the prepackaged stuff and send that all around?

00:12:01.663 --> 00:12:04.903
Uh, so on the Teton side it's all prepackaged.

00:12:04.933 --> 00:12:05.264
Okay.

00:12:05.533 --> 00:12:07.634
We have another brand called Sun Fed Ranch.

00:12:07.783 --> 00:12:08.114
Okay.

00:12:08.683 --> 00:12:13.364
Uh, it does, ground beef was in some stakes.

00:12:13.423 --> 00:12:16.394
Uh, the stake market's pretty expensive right now.

00:12:16.394 --> 00:12:16.693
Right.

00:12:17.354 --> 00:12:27.313
We, we actually, right now we're in the process of selling in some like certified regenerative Certified organic

00:12:27.433 --> 00:12:27.764
Oh,

00:12:28.033 --> 00:12:28.994
uh, stakes.

00:12:29.024 --> 00:12:29.234
Okay.

00:12:29.234 --> 00:12:31.214
Into like some natural players.

00:12:31.688 --> 00:12:32.234
So, so is

00:12:32.234 --> 00:12:36.823
that like a different, like a level up from like organic or whatever kind of thing It is.

00:12:36.854 --> 00:12:37.453
So.

00:12:37.453 --> 00:12:37.693
Okay.

00:12:37.693 --> 00:12:41.083
It's considered, these are certified organic.

00:12:41.188 --> 00:12:41.399
Organic.

00:12:41.489 --> 00:12:43.678
So it's organic plus, yep.

00:12:43.918 --> 00:12:44.938
Plus grass fed.

00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:45.359
Yep.

00:12:45.928 --> 00:12:59.849
Um, and then it's certified regenerative, meaning that with these programs and the ranchers that we're working with, they're proving on paper that they're putting more carbon into the soil, than's coming out.

00:13:00.629 --> 00:13:04.229
So like they're able to actually regenerate the land.

00:13:04.229 --> 00:13:04.589
Sure.

00:13:04.769 --> 00:13:07.739
Bring the carbon back, bring the health back into the land.

00:13:07.798 --> 00:13:08.038
Right.

00:13:08.038 --> 00:13:09.509
And it's proven third party.

00:13:09.928 --> 00:13:10.739
So it's kind of like, kind of takes

00:13:10.739 --> 00:13:14.788
the teeth out of like Belgium forcing people to kill their cows and stuff.

00:13:14.788 --> 00:13:15.119
Right.

00:13:15.869 --> 00:13:16.349
Or whatever.

00:13:16.349 --> 00:13:17.339
Yeah, that's, yeah.

00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:24.149
Like we've got somewhat of a shortage of beef in the world, partly because of some of those coals and stuff that were forced almost'cause cows fart too much.

00:13:24.839 --> 00:13:30.629
And if you can prove the point that you can actually have a negative carbon footprint with cows.

00:13:30.629 --> 00:13:31.048
Well,

00:13:31.739 --> 00:13:31.889
yeah.

00:13:31.889 --> 00:13:34.048
That they can help be part of the solution.

00:13:34.078 --> 00:13:34.168
Right.

00:13:34.168 --> 00:13:35.519
That they're not part of the problem.

00:13:35.548 --> 00:13:35.999
Yeah.

00:13:35.999 --> 00:13:36.009
Yeah.

00:13:36.239 --> 00:13:36.629
Interesting.

00:13:36.629 --> 00:13:36.778
So

00:13:37.318 --> 00:13:40.229
yeah, that's one thing that we're working on the stake front.

00:13:40.259 --> 00:13:40.739
Um.

00:13:41.278 --> 00:13:42.328
That's kind of where I, well it

00:13:42.328 --> 00:13:46.739
also proves out some of the founder's original intent of regenerating that property.

00:13:46.739 --> 00:13:47.428
That was potato farm.

00:13:47.428 --> 00:13:47.698
Exactly.

00:13:47.698 --> 00:13:48.568
Burnt up potato farm.

00:13:48.869 --> 00:13:49.528
Exactly.

00:13:50.038 --> 00:13:50.399
So

00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:58.619
like for us, you know, across both brands, uh, the real focus is, you know, what's good for the animal.

00:13:59.428 --> 00:14:07.769
So making sure that they're always grass fed, never confined out in the open, not treated with hormones or added antibiotics.

00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:07.979
Mm-hmm.

00:14:08.219 --> 00:14:09.269
You know, it's better for them.

00:14:09.568 --> 00:14:17.759
Most, almost all actually, not, almost all of the Teton products are certified humane, so like proving the humane treatment of the animal, that kind of thing.

00:14:19.229 --> 00:14:20.068
Better for the planet.

00:14:20.129 --> 00:14:20.158
I

00:14:20.158 --> 00:14:20.969
like programs like that.

00:14:20.969 --> 00:14:26.038
As long as they don't cost like$4 a pound to administer, then it becomes kind of a,

00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:27.599
the humane's not too bad.

00:14:27.599 --> 00:14:30.298
The regeneratives at, at its super early stages.

00:14:30.298 --> 00:14:30.389
Yeah.

00:14:30.389 --> 00:14:32.068
So it's really expensive stuff.

00:14:32.219 --> 00:14:37.663
'cause you're like, like a, like each ranch has to take soil samples and rub it and.

00:14:38.203 --> 00:14:38.744
Yeah.

00:14:39.104 --> 00:14:40.994
That's the challenge of those kind of things.

00:14:40.994 --> 00:14:43.484
Like you can't really have like a Pinky Promise system either.

00:14:43.484 --> 00:14:45.104
Otherwise there'll be a bunch of abusers.

00:14:45.104 --> 00:14:45.134
Oh.

00:14:45.163 --> 00:14:47.083
'cause they wanna get this premium price, you know?

00:14:47.354 --> 00:14:53.203
Well, and that's unfortunately, like, that's just a lot of the industries today.

00:14:53.203 --> 00:14:53.894
I mean, everywhere.

00:14:54.313 --> 00:15:03.673
I mean, that's the reason why we have 300 page mortgages is because somewhere somebody that should have been okay with a picky promise screwed us over.

00:15:03.913 --> 00:15:04.274
Exactly.

00:15:04.274 --> 00:15:05.354
Or screwed somebody over.

00:15:06.224 --> 00:15:06.644
Yeah.

00:15:06.644 --> 00:15:13.543
That's, that's probably one of my biggest frustrations with the industry is like my number one value as a person is truth.

00:15:13.543 --> 00:15:13.604
Yeah.

00:15:14.053 --> 00:15:19.754
And so, like, I always believe in doing the right thing, you know, with ours, you know, never confined anything like that.

00:15:19.754 --> 00:15:26.953
And like the, the majority of grass fed beef in the US is fed in a feedlot grass pellets.

00:15:27.464 --> 00:15:29.864
They're not even roaming in a pasture.

00:15:29.953 --> 00:15:30.374
Oh.

00:15:30.464 --> 00:15:31.604
Eating grass.

00:15:32.083 --> 00:15:33.433
So it's like not legitimate.

00:15:33.464 --> 00:15:33.764
Yeah.

00:15:33.769 --> 00:15:36.269
In, in my opinion, I think they're eating grass, but Yeah.

00:15:36.269 --> 00:15:36.583
Well they are

00:15:36.583 --> 00:15:37.458
eating grass, but.

00:15:38.264 --> 00:15:41.293
Like kind of the point of being grass fed is you get to wander around out there.

00:15:41.624 --> 00:15:52.063
'cause if you ask the cow, like if you put a pile of ground corn with some yummy supplements in it beside a pile of these grass pellets in a feedlot, I bet most cows would go right for that corn.

00:15:52.153 --> 00:15:52.484
Oh yeah.

00:15:52.543 --> 00:15:53.024
It's candy.

00:15:53.024 --> 00:15:54.793
So you're Exactly, so you're

00:15:54.793 --> 00:15:57.374
not even giving them what they would choose of their accord.

00:15:57.403 --> 00:15:57.943
Exactly.

00:15:58.004 --> 00:16:01.183
You know, they just get to stay in the same kind of housing.

00:16:01.604 --> 00:16:05.774
You're still, you're still in the section eight housing, but now you gotta eat vegetarian.

00:16:06.283 --> 00:16:06.854
Exactly.

00:16:07.754 --> 00:16:18.884
And, and no offense, I love grass fed beef and like for my, for me personally, if that grass fed beef can be finished on like 30 days of corn, they like the candy.

00:16:18.943 --> 00:16:21.614
They like Yeah, they do like the candy.

00:16:21.673 --> 00:16:34.244
Is there a reason why I should like, think again about that, uh, notion in my mind because, um, I like the flavor of grass fed as well, but if it could have a little bit more marbling, a little bit more.

00:16:34.994 --> 00:16:36.073
Candy flavor.

00:16:36.073 --> 00:16:38.624
I, I would usually choose that at my plate sooner.

00:16:39.134 --> 00:16:41.234
I think it all depends on personal preferences.

00:16:41.323 --> 00:16:41.504
Yeah.

00:16:41.504 --> 00:16:47.474
So, you know, one thing with grass fed is the fat profiles are a lot different.

00:16:47.474 --> 00:16:47.833
So like,

00:16:48.494 --> 00:16:48.913
tell me more.

00:16:49.063 --> 00:16:57.803
Um, so like we, we work, we import a lot of our grass fed too, because there's just not much, they don't have to prop pate grass.

00:16:57.803 --> 00:16:59.774
True, legitimate grass fed inside the us.

00:16:59.774 --> 00:17:08.683
Like if you look at how much legitimate grass fed open pasture, eating native grasses year round, like climate wise is pretty tough

00:17:08.804 --> 00:17:08.953
to do.

00:17:09.854 --> 00:17:12.118
So we import a lot from like tropical type regions.

00:17:12.118 --> 00:17:12.644
At least seasonally

00:17:12.644 --> 00:17:13.304
You have to.

00:17:13.574 --> 00:17:13.874
Yeah.

00:17:14.054 --> 00:17:19.574
And we went to, oh gosh, uh, I'm trying to remember.

00:17:19.693 --> 00:17:24.824
Santa, uh, one of the tropical islands and we had a, an alarm cow.

00:17:24.868 --> 00:17:27.778
Like they had jungle cows where we were St.

00:17:27.778 --> 00:17:28.709
Lucia Okay.

00:17:28.709 --> 00:17:29.519
Was the island.

00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:40.318
And like every morning at like six 30, 7:00 AM there was like four to six cows within a mile of our cabin that we were staying at.

00:17:40.318 --> 00:17:42.479
And they were, they were our alarm clocks every day.

00:17:42.898 --> 00:17:43.648
Just waking you up.

00:17:43.679 --> 00:17:43.798
Yeah.

00:17:43.828 --> 00:17:44.308
Just jungle

00:17:44.308 --> 00:17:44.999
cows, man.

00:17:44.999 --> 00:17:46.828
We never saw a one of'em really?

00:17:46.888 --> 00:17:53.788
Well when we saw other cows in other places along the side, the road and stuff, but in the jungle they were just jungle cows somewhere out in the trees, you know?

00:17:53.848 --> 00:17:54.118
Yeah.

00:17:54.239 --> 00:17:55.259
Anyway, I digress.

00:17:55.558 --> 00:17:57.989
But I would imagine that's a year-round environment.

00:17:58.019 --> 00:17:58.138
Yep.

00:17:58.138 --> 00:18:00.449
You're always able to pick strawberries in the jungle.

00:18:00.449 --> 00:18:00.808
Right.

00:18:01.318 --> 00:18:05.729
So it's like, you know, more tropical, um, they get a big variety of diet.

00:18:05.818 --> 00:18:05.909
Mm-hmm.

00:18:06.148 --> 00:18:10.409
So like, that's the one thing about like being truly like free roaming, but they still will

00:18:10.409 --> 00:18:12.538
choose grasses quite a bit.

00:18:12.568 --> 00:18:13.124
Like that's what's, yep.

00:18:13.124 --> 00:18:13.284
There's

00:18:13.284 --> 00:18:14.243
hundreds of types of grasses.

00:18:14.243 --> 00:18:14.364
Right.

00:18:14.364 --> 00:18:14.884
Versus like, if.

00:18:15.598 --> 00:18:16.949
If you make a pallette, it's gonna be modern.

00:18:16.949 --> 00:18:17.878
Well, they'll probably eat apples

00:18:17.878 --> 00:18:19.318
off the ground and stuff like that too.

00:18:19.439 --> 00:18:19.618
Right?

00:18:19.618 --> 00:18:19.858
Exactly.

00:18:20.249 --> 00:18:20.398
Yeah.

00:18:20.398 --> 00:18:21.689
Anything mangoes?

00:18:22.679 --> 00:18:23.128
Maybe not.

00:18:23.128 --> 00:18:28.949
Maybe I, I don't know if I've seen many mangoes up there where we go's maybe too fruity anyway, but, um,

00:18:29.038 --> 00:18:33.179
so that's how you can do year round sourcing is to have your own uh Exactly.

00:18:33.179 --> 00:18:33.868
Elements there.

00:18:34.019 --> 00:18:37.828
And so they're, they're diet variety is so broad.

00:18:38.038 --> 00:18:38.189
Yeah.

00:18:38.189 --> 00:18:40.078
You're getting lots of different nutrients.

00:18:40.439 --> 00:18:45.449
So like when you eat, you know, a corn fed that's been in a feedlot through traditional systems Yeah.

00:18:45.719 --> 00:18:47.578
They're mono fed just like a monocrop.

00:18:48.088 --> 00:18:51.598
So you're not getting as big a variety of nutrients and vitamins.

00:18:51.598 --> 00:18:52.888
They have to be supplemented.

00:18:52.949 --> 00:18:58.949
And then do they just bring in like sides of beef your, when we get it, your company?

00:18:58.949 --> 00:18:59.219
Yeah.

00:18:59.219 --> 00:19:00.989
And then turns it into sausage here somewhere.

00:19:01.078 --> 00:19:05.429
Uh, or sometimes they actually make the sausage according to your spec there.

00:19:05.459 --> 00:19:05.729
Nope.

00:19:05.848 --> 00:19:06.118
No.

00:19:06.118 --> 00:19:08.608
So we process over there.

00:19:08.878 --> 00:19:09.179
Okay.

00:19:09.598 --> 00:19:11.098
We get some here in the us.

00:19:11.128 --> 00:19:11.219
Yep.

00:19:11.219 --> 00:19:14.909
So some's here some, you know, there's some that comes from South America.

00:19:15.419 --> 00:19:16.949
Some that comes from Australia.

00:19:17.038 --> 00:19:17.308
Yeah.

00:19:17.308 --> 00:19:18.659
Kind of source globally.

00:19:18.749 --> 00:19:18.959
Yep.

00:19:19.378 --> 00:19:20.638
Uh, as long as every to, to some extent

00:19:20.638 --> 00:19:21.628
there's an open market.

00:19:21.628 --> 00:19:24.028
It's not quite as homogenous as wheat

00:19:24.328 --> 00:19:24.628
Correct.

00:19:24.659 --> 00:19:25.288
Or corn.

00:19:25.288 --> 00:19:28.618
But it's still relatively homogenous and it's quality tiered and whatever else.

00:19:28.679 --> 00:19:29.159
Exactly.

00:19:29.159 --> 00:19:33.719
And we go and we verify, you know, we're on the ground visiting these ranchers and that kind of thing.

00:19:33.719 --> 00:19:34.048
Yeah.

00:19:34.108 --> 00:19:34.469
Yeah.

00:19:35.429 --> 00:19:37.199
Is there like open markets a lot?

00:19:37.679 --> 00:19:40.318
Or is it more like handshakes with the producers?

00:19:40.888 --> 00:19:41.429
Uh,

00:19:41.578 --> 00:19:41.999
and

00:19:42.358 --> 00:19:43.588
it's open market.

00:19:43.588 --> 00:19:44.578
It's a little bit of both.

00:19:44.699 --> 00:19:44.759
Yeah.

00:19:44.759 --> 00:19:48.239
So, like, you know, we have good partnerships with like processors.

00:19:48.269 --> 00:19:48.628
Sure.

00:19:49.229 --> 00:19:52.739
And so they, they might have 5,000 producers.

00:19:53.398 --> 00:19:56.669
There's some instances where we go directly to the producer.

00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:56.939
Mm-hmm.

00:19:57.328 --> 00:20:05.489
So, you know, if I, if I were to guess, we're probably sourcing from about 15,000 ranchers at any given time.

00:20:06.239 --> 00:20:06.419
Wow.

00:20:06.509 --> 00:20:07.588
And we go visit.

00:20:07.663 --> 00:20:09.673
You know, 10, 20 a year.

00:20:09.824 --> 00:20:10.273
Yeah.

00:20:10.273 --> 00:20:10.284
Yeah.

00:20:10.784 --> 00:20:12.463
Um, but the producers

00:20:12.703 --> 00:20:13.003
Yeah.

00:20:13.003 --> 00:20:13.179
Like process.

00:20:13.179 --> 00:20:13.419
Yeah.

00:20:13.423 --> 00:20:15.614
Because they're taking in, in from the real small guys and stuff.

00:20:15.614 --> 00:20:17.713
You can't go visit that, but they still raise good cows.

00:20:17.743 --> 00:20:18.403
Exactly.

00:20:19.243 --> 00:20:23.773
And so they pull, you know, and they're visiting all those ranches on a regular basis.

00:20:23.804 --> 00:20:24.943
'cause they're regionally there.

00:20:24.973 --> 00:20:25.394
Yeah.

00:20:25.423 --> 00:20:27.763
For us, like, you know, trip to Australia is a big deal.

00:20:28.124 --> 00:20:28.304
Right.

00:20:28.304 --> 00:20:29.683
Totally interesting.

00:20:29.953 --> 00:20:33.554
Um, but, you know, coming back to like the health benefits Yeah.

00:20:33.554 --> 00:20:34.034
Please.

00:20:34.094 --> 00:20:43.844
Um, you know, with the variety diet they have, you know, the nutrients are much denser and then the fat profiles are pretty interesting.

00:20:43.874 --> 00:20:44.144
Yeah.

00:20:44.294 --> 00:20:49.814
So we'll test our products like in a lab here in the US versus conventional beef.

00:20:49.903 --> 00:20:50.114
Okay.

00:20:50.173 --> 00:20:57.763
And you know, a couple things that always seem to pop up is the density of vitamins and minerals always higher.

00:20:58.094 --> 00:20:58.423
Okay.

00:20:58.663 --> 00:21:01.993
The, uh, Omega-3 fats Yeah.

00:21:02.023 --> 00:21:03.074
Are way higher.

00:21:03.134 --> 00:21:04.423
So omega threes are good for you.

00:21:04.429 --> 00:21:04.568
It's

00:21:04.568 --> 00:21:05.953
like the fish pet usually, right?

00:21:05.959 --> 00:21:05.969
Yep.

00:21:06.163 --> 00:21:06.403
Yep.

00:21:06.554 --> 00:21:07.094
So

00:21:07.124 --> 00:21:07.544
interesting.

00:21:08.398 --> 00:21:14.098
Sometimes, and we don't market this'cause there's variety and different cattle and different kinds of things.

00:21:14.098 --> 00:21:21.689
But like we've had some tests come back that like the omega threes were as high as in salmon in one instance, where we're like, wow, that's pretty impressive.

00:21:21.719 --> 00:21:22.138
Interesting.

00:21:22.348 --> 00:21:31.439
Um, but the omega threes are very high in the fats and the omega sixes are quite low and in, and omega sixes are the bad fats.

00:21:31.439 --> 00:21:33.628
That's the bad, bad cholesterol or whatever.

00:21:33.719 --> 00:21:35.489
And it's the stuff it the exact reverse huh?

00:21:35.729 --> 00:21:36.554
In corn fed.

00:21:36.794 --> 00:21:36.913
Interesting.

00:21:36.989 --> 00:21:37.348
Huh.

00:21:37.558 --> 00:21:41.669
And then the other thing that's like way off the charts is the CLOs.

00:21:41.669 --> 00:21:42.719
Do you know what CLOs are?

00:21:42.778 --> 00:21:43.348
I don't know if I do.

00:21:43.378 --> 00:21:46.348
It's like con acids.

00:21:46.409 --> 00:21:46.798
Okay.

00:21:47.338 --> 00:21:49.709
Um, and it's a iCal visit Sounds like a good thing.

00:21:50.638 --> 00:21:50.659
So it's,

00:21:52.138 --> 00:21:53.578
so it, and those are,

00:21:53.699 --> 00:21:58.558
it's a fat, um, that basically help your body process fats.

00:21:58.558 --> 00:21:59.669
It's like a metabolism

00:21:59.969 --> 00:22:00.898
thing helps it pull it out of there.

00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:01.229
Yep.

00:22:01.229 --> 00:22:03.239
And it's, it instead of just looking at it.

00:22:03.388 --> 00:22:04.169
Exactly.

00:22:04.199 --> 00:22:06.479
And it comes from lots of, um.

00:22:07.064 --> 00:22:09.973
Like eating a photosynthesis type plants.

00:22:10.304 --> 00:22:10.394
Mm-hmm.

00:22:10.663 --> 00:22:17.923
So, you know, when we did lab testing, like in traditional beef, the CLOs was, I can't remember the exact numbers, like three.

00:22:18.013 --> 00:22:18.223
Hmm.

00:22:18.284 --> 00:22:20.324
And ours were 65.

00:22:21.403 --> 00:22:30.344
You know, I think they should do some genetic stuff with squirrel DNA in cows because squirrels really put on fat nicely in the winter.

00:22:30.854 --> 00:22:31.213
There you

00:22:31.213 --> 00:22:31.273
go.

00:22:31.273 --> 00:22:31.483
Right.

00:22:31.483 --> 00:22:39.493
And they must have maybe a lot of that conac acid so that they can access that fat easily while they're not eating Kinda their hibernation in the winter.

00:22:39.554 --> 00:22:39.794
Yeah.

00:22:39.794 --> 00:22:41.624
And they're hibernating, but they're not really hibernated.

00:22:41.624 --> 00:22:44.473
They're going out in here and there and just not eating as much.

00:22:44.473 --> 00:22:47.773
'cause there isn't berries all over the ground and bird apples and whatnot.

00:22:48.614 --> 00:22:58.243
Um, but they definitely have these ability are bears, you know, the ability to put on and then melt away fat at a very high discretionary level almost.

00:22:58.304 --> 00:22:58.513
Yep.

00:22:59.054 --> 00:23:08.114
Um, anyway, I'm just an idea for you super scientists out there that are listening to this podcast is, uh, yellow Squirrel, DNA and your typical Angus, uh, herd.

00:23:08.114 --> 00:23:15.044
And is it, is it Angus cows or what's the, what's the, what is the outside world look like, like in America?

00:23:15.104 --> 00:23:19.844
Basically, black Angus got fancy and then everybody just did Black Angus with some Red Angus.

00:23:19.844 --> 00:23:25.034
After a while, there wasn't any herefords and there wasn't any charlet and all these different cows we used to have.

00:23:25.034 --> 00:23:25.394
Yeah.

00:23:26.054 --> 00:23:27.493
And that's still a big thing in the us.

00:23:27.493 --> 00:23:30.013
Like there's, there's all, there's charlas, there's too low.

00:23:30.104 --> 00:23:30.554
Oh, there is.

00:23:30.558 --> 00:23:31.273
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:23:31.273 --> 00:23:33.223
It's like, you know,

00:23:33.314 --> 00:23:36.223
seemed like where I grew up, it was just all of a sudden everybody had black cows.

00:23:38.233 --> 00:23:44.294
Now there's, I'd say in the US like Angus clearly is the dominant breed.

00:23:44.354 --> 00:23:44.624
Yeah.

00:23:45.493 --> 00:23:46.844
Uh, internationally.

00:23:47.624 --> 00:23:52.034
Angus is still the dominant, like British breeds are kind of the Angus.

00:23:52.153 --> 00:23:52.483
Okay.

00:23:52.544 --> 00:23:57.068
Uh, in some of the tropics there is some like Brahman mm-hmm.

00:23:57.253 --> 00:24:01.213
In there just because like the Angus don't take the heat as well.

00:24:01.273 --> 00:24:01.483
Right.

00:24:01.483 --> 00:24:04.094
And they can't fight off the flies and those kinds of things Okay.

00:24:04.094 --> 00:24:04.574
As well.

00:24:04.574 --> 00:24:07.304
But you know, it kind of all varies.

00:24:07.304 --> 00:24:16.483
And one thing, if you wanna hear something super interesting about like what's happening in the beef world right now is, do you know much about dairy?

00:24:17.294 --> 00:24:21.763
I mean, my dad subbed in for a dairy farmer a little occasionally.

00:24:21.794 --> 00:24:29.743
You know, the four days a year that the guy got off was my dad was milking his cows and I would help him, but it was like a 60 cow herd or 80 cow herd or nothing big.

00:24:30.433 --> 00:24:39.644
So we, we are not doing this today, but we're, I've kinda learned a little bit more about this and it's something that's becoming more and more prevalent.

00:24:39.644 --> 00:24:41.354
So in dairy,

00:24:41.683 --> 00:24:41.894
okay.

00:24:42.314 --> 00:24:45.523
For a cow to make milk, it has to have a baby.

00:24:45.584 --> 00:24:45.913
Sure.

00:24:47.023 --> 00:24:48.943
Without babies, there is no milk.

00:24:49.034 --> 00:24:49.364
Sure.

00:24:49.844 --> 00:24:59.834
And one of the biggest problems in the dairy industry was, okay, you have babies, but you don't really need boy dairy cows.

00:25:00.523 --> 00:25:00.884
Right.

00:25:01.513 --> 00:25:06.163
So traditionally the boy dairy cows when they were born went to veal.

00:25:06.344 --> 00:25:06.703
Right.

00:25:07.663 --> 00:25:08.503
And which

00:25:08.503 --> 00:25:09.104
is yummy.

00:25:09.884 --> 00:25:09.943
Yeah.

00:25:09.943 --> 00:25:10.903
But it is baby cow.

00:25:11.173 --> 00:25:11.894
But it is baby cow.

00:25:11.894 --> 00:25:15.169
And like a lot of Americans aren't too big on eating baby cow.

00:25:15.493 --> 00:25:15.614
Yeah.

00:25:15.614 --> 00:25:16.634
So like the veal industry.

00:25:16.753 --> 00:25:17.144
Yeah.

00:25:17.148 --> 00:25:18.648
It's hard to get the market little bit from it.

00:25:18.759 --> 00:25:19.048
Yeah.

00:25:19.693 --> 00:25:19.874
Get it.

00:25:19.874 --> 00:25:19.963
And

00:25:19.963 --> 00:25:23.054
then like, you know, the girl baby cows become the deal.

00:25:23.054 --> 00:25:23.294
Mama

00:25:23.294 --> 00:25:23.864
baby cows.

00:25:23.864 --> 00:25:24.074
Yeah.

00:25:24.134 --> 00:25:24.733
The mamas.

00:25:25.574 --> 00:25:26.953
And which also

00:25:26.953 --> 00:25:28.963
isn't a very glorious job generally.

00:25:29.203 --> 00:25:29.384
Yeah.

00:25:29.384 --> 00:25:36.913
No, not, but you know, for a good ranch or or for a good dairyman, they get to cruise on the pasture quite a bit and then come in a couple times a day and have the old milk relief.

00:25:36.943 --> 00:25:37.243
Correct.

00:25:37.243 --> 00:25:37.903
Treatment, you know,

00:25:38.743 --> 00:25:44.233
so what, what they've been able to do through artificial insemination over the last few years.

00:25:44.834 --> 00:25:49.903
Is be able to almost predetermine the sex of the baby.

00:25:49.963 --> 00:25:50.233
Mm-hmm.

00:25:50.864 --> 00:25:51.344
Makes sense

00:25:51.344 --> 00:25:53.263
To like 96% accuracy.

00:25:53.413 --> 00:25:53.594
Okay.

00:25:53.594 --> 00:25:55.394
So you just have girl baby cows anymore

00:25:55.844 --> 00:25:59.233
or you know, you don't always need more girl baby cows actually.

00:25:59.233 --> 00:25:59.773
Well, if

00:25:59.773 --> 00:26:01.663
feeder cattle you, everybody wants steers

00:26:02.503 --> 00:26:03.733
for, because

00:26:03.733 --> 00:26:06.703
they, because they fatten up faster on the corn lot and whatever.

00:26:06.763 --> 00:26:07.273
Exactly.

00:26:07.273 --> 00:26:08.894
But nobody wants a dairy steer.

00:26:09.163 --> 00:26:09.493
Right.

00:26:10.124 --> 00:26:16.723
So when the farmers know that they, Hey, I need to kind of have more girls coming in and rotate through that.

00:26:16.874 --> 00:26:17.114
Yeah.

00:26:17.354 --> 00:26:22.364
We're going to breed really high quality genetic female cows.

00:26:22.364 --> 00:26:22.693
Sure.

00:26:22.814 --> 00:26:37.874
For dairy, but this year maybe I don't need many females, so we're gonna breed Angus onto dairy with like all the attributes for great quality meat and then the boys go to the market.

00:26:37.903 --> 00:26:38.503
No way.

00:26:38.624 --> 00:26:39.193
Yeah.

00:26:40.034 --> 00:26:40.634
Interesting.

00:26:40.634 --> 00:26:46.243
So you can put a little, uh, grower, not a show into the boy cows that happened to get slip through.

00:26:46.328 --> 00:26:46.618
Yeah.

00:26:46.679 --> 00:26:50.114
So that's kind of where the industry, the dairy industry has been going.

00:26:50.114 --> 00:27:00.134
Well, and on the, on the cow calf operations, you know, they, the, the, they'd rather have more steers'cause they put on weight a lot faster as adolescent.

00:27:00.134 --> 00:27:00.493
Right.

00:27:00.493 --> 00:27:06.193
And so same thing could apply where you could just have more boys and less girl cows.

00:27:06.193 --> 00:27:09.854
So that, that could be a trap in terms of just building the herd.

00:27:09.854 --> 00:27:10.094
Right.

00:27:10.094 --> 00:27:11.834
Like, now we need more girl cows.

00:27:11.894 --> 00:27:11.983
Yeah.

00:27:11.983 --> 00:27:13.993
Now we need more hers.

00:27:14.054 --> 00:27:14.503
Right,

00:27:14.983 --> 00:27:15.433
right.

00:27:15.733 --> 00:27:16.723
And steers about,

00:27:16.993 --> 00:27:17.324
yeah.

00:27:17.413 --> 00:27:17.894
Interesting.

00:27:18.163 --> 00:27:18.913
Yeah, it's pretty interesting.

00:27:18.913 --> 00:27:20.199
I don't know how much that's happening in the US Yeah.

00:27:20.534 --> 00:27:20.894
The of it is

00:27:20.894 --> 00:27:22.034
all very complicated.

00:27:22.034 --> 00:27:23.878
Like, you know, is it.

00:27:24.763 --> 00:27:25.663
Is it good?

00:27:25.663 --> 00:27:31.483
Is it better in some ways of having, you know, more girl cows in an industry where nobody wants to eat veal?

00:27:31.483 --> 00:27:37.034
Or is it like kind of ethically funny, like pulling those strings and

00:27:37.153 --> 00:27:39.044
we're definitely playing God, right?

00:27:39.044 --> 00:27:40.243
As as humans, right?

00:27:40.243 --> 00:27:43.153
Like I was, I don't know how much of that happens in the us.

00:27:43.574 --> 00:27:45.433
That was something new I learned about.

00:27:45.433 --> 00:27:46.273
But if it's a competitive

00:27:46.273 --> 00:27:48.403
advantage, it's going to come here eventually.

00:27:48.403 --> 00:27:48.644
Probably.

00:27:48.644 --> 00:27:48.703
Yeah.

00:27:49.903 --> 00:27:54.253
Yeah, I just thought it was pretty interesting that insane when somebody, like we went through and they were explaining that, and

00:27:54.554 --> 00:27:56.834
so yours is a premium product on both sides.

00:27:56.864 --> 00:28:01.124
Both the, the branded sausages and hot dogs and whatnot that you can pick up wherever.

00:28:01.124 --> 00:28:07.874
And then, and then the, is it restaurants and such that do a lot of the steak or other cuts and grounds products or is that also

00:28:07.993 --> 00:28:09.824
that's all retail marketed retail too.

00:28:09.884 --> 00:28:10.003
Yeah.

00:28:10.064 --> 00:28:10.273
Okay.

00:28:10.273 --> 00:28:13.213
So today we're just very a hundred percent retail.

00:28:13.213 --> 00:28:13.304
Your

00:28:13.304 --> 00:28:18.973
roots are abandoned, kind of in the premium steakhouse in the, uh, Jackson Hole, Wyoming,

00:28:19.273 --> 00:28:19.753
yeah.

00:28:19.753 --> 00:28:20.384
For now.

00:28:20.503 --> 00:28:20.713
Yeah.

00:28:20.713 --> 00:28:25.124
I think, you know, we're, we're leaning more towards, you know, kind of going whole animal.

00:28:25.273 --> 00:28:25.513
Yeah.

00:28:25.574 --> 00:28:26.294
Longer term.

00:28:26.624 --> 00:28:26.864
Yeah.

00:28:26.953 --> 00:28:29.834
But, uh, for now it's all on the retail products.

00:28:29.864 --> 00:28:32.473
'cause that's where the brands have done really, really well.

00:28:32.503 --> 00:28:32.923
Right.

00:28:32.923 --> 00:28:33.074
Yeah.

00:28:33.074 --> 00:28:34.753
You gotta follow your opportunities in some way.

00:28:34.784 --> 00:28:34.844
Yeah.

00:28:35.233 --> 00:28:45.523
So, um, I guess talk to me about, you said a lot, a little bit of, for now, like, so what would be the steps of being able to do more whole animal stuff?

00:28:45.523 --> 00:28:46.453
Is that, uh.

00:28:47.473 --> 00:28:51.554
Like it's, it's, you'd almost have to do stakes through those retail environments.

00:28:51.584 --> 00:28:52.183
Correct.

00:28:52.483 --> 00:28:56.953
Just add that on, not, not go back to the roots of the restaurants, but just have a packaged product again.

00:28:57.013 --> 00:28:57.554
Correct.

00:28:58.124 --> 00:28:58.544
Yeah.

00:28:58.544 --> 00:29:03.044
And, and a lot of it's just, as I said, like my number one values truth.

00:29:03.134 --> 00:29:03.584
Yeah.

00:29:03.584 --> 00:29:06.854
And, and we're a small player, like, so we Right.

00:29:06.854 --> 00:29:14.564
In the grand scheme, in the grand scheme, like pretty difficult for us to compete with the four major packers in the us.

00:29:14.564 --> 00:29:14.574
Mm.

00:29:14.624 --> 00:29:14.713
Mm-hmm.

00:29:15.013 --> 00:29:27.913
And you know, when you think about like, if truth is your number one, like you're always going to be at a bit of a competitive disadvantage from a cost standpoint then versus the people willing to cut corners, which we are not.

00:29:28.034 --> 00:29:28.544
Yeah.

00:29:28.544 --> 00:29:28.554
Yeah.

00:29:29.023 --> 00:29:33.913
And so, you know, when we've gone in on the stake programs, they're like, boy, you're pretty expensive.

00:29:33.913 --> 00:29:34.574
And you're like, well,

00:29:34.963 --> 00:29:36.284
it's what it takes to have a good steak.

00:29:36.284 --> 00:29:37.034
It's what it takes.

00:29:37.034 --> 00:29:41.653
You want not such a great steak that I tell you is a great steak, then I could do that, but it wouldn't be true.

00:29:41.743 --> 00:29:42.253
Correct.

00:29:42.884 --> 00:29:43.273
Um.

00:29:43.618 --> 00:29:46.378
So that's kinda the number one challenge that we're at.

00:29:46.378 --> 00:29:54.689
And I think, you know, one place that we could be more competitive that we're looking at is working directly with more of the ranchers.

00:29:54.778 --> 00:29:54.929
Mm-hmm.

00:29:55.199 --> 00:29:56.098
And saying, Hey,

00:29:56.219 --> 00:29:57.689
almost a coalition of sorts.

00:29:57.689 --> 00:29:58.259
Correct.

00:29:58.259 --> 00:30:00.118
And then we're taking the whole animal.

00:30:00.179 --> 00:30:00.479
Mm-hmm.

00:30:01.499 --> 00:30:15.479
But, you know, maybe doing it instead of having that really, really top tier, you know, steer say, Hey, like let's take a little bit of an older animal that's lived a great life out in the, the farm.

00:30:15.959 --> 00:30:16.199
Yep.

00:30:16.499 --> 00:30:22.108
And 90% of it's going to go into hot dogs, and then we're gonna take the stakes as well.

00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:22.648
Yeah.

00:30:23.098 --> 00:30:27.598
And give us a little bit of a competitive advantage on the price there.

00:30:27.598 --> 00:30:27.608
Yeah.

00:30:28.318 --> 00:30:31.469
And you know, all that will be certified regenerative.

00:30:31.469 --> 00:30:34.588
'cause those are the ranches we're going back and working with directly.

00:30:34.888 --> 00:30:43.019
Well, and if you can help them increase the productive capacity of their farms and give them an equipping to do so and stuff.

00:30:43.019 --> 00:30:43.259
Right.

00:30:43.259 --> 00:30:44.189
And some encouragement.

00:30:44.189 --> 00:30:47.519
It, it kind of can be you scratch each others back a little bit.

00:30:48.209 --> 00:30:57.148
And I think a lot of the ranchers that we've talked to, like they're really excited about the idea of like, oh, when we send it to you, we see this premium product.

00:30:57.148 --> 00:30:59.009
Like we see the Teton brand Yeah.

00:30:59.009 --> 00:30:59.578
On the shelf.

00:30:59.578 --> 00:31:02.788
We like, we almost feel like we're part of that.

00:31:02.788 --> 00:31:02.848
Yeah.

00:31:02.874 --> 00:31:03.034
Yeah.

00:31:03.449 --> 00:31:05.368
Versus in the, the traditional market.

00:31:05.368 --> 00:31:08.249
Like once it goes into a major packer, like who knows where it

00:31:08.249 --> 00:31:08.459
is.

00:31:08.489 --> 00:31:08.608
Right.

00:31:08.608 --> 00:31:08.969
Right.

00:31:09.838 --> 00:31:10.019
Yeah.

00:31:10.019 --> 00:31:12.598
And you still have that responsibility to make sure it is a premium product.

00:31:12.749 --> 00:31:13.078
Exactly.

00:31:13.078 --> 00:31:13.874
And qualifies for all those things.

00:31:13.874 --> 00:31:14.953
That's what costs so much money.

00:31:15.134 --> 00:31:15.354
Yep.

00:31:15.628 --> 00:31:17.338
I was just thinking to myself about the.

00:31:17.923 --> 00:31:23.923
Because I, my dad actually, uh, well he is, he's a farmer in North Dakota, but he's raised, he raised cattle for maybe about 10 years.

00:31:23.923 --> 00:31:24.374
Like okay.

00:31:24.733 --> 00:31:32.054
Right after I was off to Colorado, he bought some, what do you call, broken mouth heifers or broken mouth gold cows.

00:31:32.564 --> 00:31:35.324
Like they were basically bred old cows.

00:31:35.328 --> 00:31:35.479
Okay.

00:31:35.624 --> 00:31:45.644
That didn't hardly have any teeth left, you know, so they weren't very good grazers or anything, but he had a bunch of extra pasture and they were so cheap that the, the baby cows were almost worth more than the pregnant mama cows.

00:31:45.673 --> 00:31:45.884
Yep.

00:31:46.273 --> 00:31:47.923
And it was just kind of a blip in the market.

00:31:47.923 --> 00:31:57.223
But he happened to have pasture and stuff, so they raised cows for eight or 10 years and, you know, ultimately realized they could make a lot more money just not screwing around with cows all winter.

00:31:57.733 --> 00:32:00.824
And like it was half their work for 8% of their money.

00:32:01.003 --> 00:32:01.243
Yeah.

00:32:01.243 --> 00:32:01.814
Kind of thing.

00:32:01.814 --> 00:32:10.604
But the, even before that, going back to my grandfather's days and, and into my dad's cattle raising, like the cows that we ate.

00:32:10.753 --> 00:32:10.814
Yeah.

00:32:11.564 --> 00:32:12.344
Were grass fed.

00:32:12.344 --> 00:32:12.703
Totally.

00:32:12.703 --> 00:32:15.703
Because they were just the old mama cows basically.

00:32:15.733 --> 00:32:15.794
Yeah.

00:32:15.798 --> 00:32:17.919
They were, were roaming on the, on the land.

00:32:17.919 --> 00:32:18.199
Right.

00:32:18.199 --> 00:32:18.253
And they

00:32:18.253 --> 00:32:23.294
lived, you know, nine or 12 years or something out there and had eight babies over the course of their lifetime.

00:32:23.294 --> 00:32:28.723
And then they got old enough, they didn't really have babies anymore, so it's time to hit the Yeah.

00:32:28.814 --> 00:32:30.044
You know, the vacation time.

00:32:30.284 --> 00:32:31.604
And that's the way we used to eat.

00:32:31.663 --> 00:32:31.844
Right.

00:32:31.848 --> 00:32:31.878
Yeah.

00:32:31.884 --> 00:32:36.884
And that's the, that's kind of what we've gone away from.

00:32:36.943 --> 00:32:37.273
Yeah.

00:32:37.453 --> 00:32:41.233
You know, where everybody's like, oh, I just love that pure white marble state.

00:32:41.233 --> 00:32:41.773
And like, but

00:32:41.773 --> 00:32:45.314
that flavor of that old heifer is actually better.

00:32:45.493 --> 00:32:45.884
Correct.

00:32:45.943 --> 00:32:48.403
Frank or that old heifer, what's, I guess just an old mama cow.

00:32:48.433 --> 00:32:48.673
Yeah.

00:32:48.973 --> 00:32:56.743
An old mama cow is actually better than a, you know, a 12 month old steer that got fattened up on candy for the last eight months of his life.

00:32:56.923 --> 00:33:00.223
Well, because you're getting all the nutrients and all the things that it ate over.

00:33:00.223 --> 00:33:00.344
Right.

00:33:00.344 --> 00:33:01.513
It took a lot of work

00:33:01.513 --> 00:33:03.104
to create that many pounds.

00:33:03.463 --> 00:33:03.673
Yeah.

00:33:03.733 --> 00:33:04.078
Of beef.

00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:06.028
Grass.

00:33:06.269 --> 00:33:06.538
Yep.

00:33:06.898 --> 00:33:10.588
Whereas it doesn't take much work at all to create a bunch of pounds of beef outta corn.

00:33:10.709 --> 00:33:12.838
No, that's pretty crazy.

00:33:12.838 --> 00:33:13.588
Like in a, just like

00:33:13.588 --> 00:33:17.398
if me and you just ate Doritos and whatever, ice cream.

00:33:17.818 --> 00:33:18.058
Yep.

00:33:18.118 --> 00:33:19.199
And that's all we ate.

00:33:19.919 --> 00:33:23.159
Like we would fatten up real quick and drank alcohol.

00:33:23.189 --> 00:33:23.969
We should probably drink beer.

00:33:23.969 --> 00:33:24.509
A lot of beer.

00:33:24.509 --> 00:33:24.778
There you go.

00:33:24.808 --> 00:33:25.138
Right?

00:33:25.138 --> 00:33:30.778
Because that's like the sorghum or the, uh, silage is equivalent of beer for cows probably.

00:33:31.229 --> 00:33:36.388
But if you're just eating sugary treats all the time, I don't know.

00:33:36.713 --> 00:33:42.388
I, I guess if I'm thinking seriously about it, would you rather eat that fatty or like a marathon runner?

00:33:42.388 --> 00:33:44.429
I'm thinking the marathon runner would be kind of tough.

00:33:44.459 --> 00:33:47.759
The, the vegan marathon runner or the couch potato fatty.

00:33:48.358 --> 00:33:51.749
I guess the question would be, are you eating somebody?

00:33:51.808 --> 00:33:52.439
Are you eating?

00:33:52.499 --> 00:33:52.919
No, no.

00:33:54.898 --> 00:33:59.038
My question would be, are you eating for purely taste and satisfaction?

00:33:59.038 --> 00:34:00.419
Which is one thing like Yeah.

00:34:00.898 --> 00:34:03.659
Or are you eating for your health and the longevity of your own body?

00:34:03.719 --> 00:34:08.429
Question because personally I'd rather eat something that I know is leany eat the marathon runner.

00:34:08.458 --> 00:34:08.759
Yeah.

00:34:08.909 --> 00:34:12.028
Like clearly this is, that's gonna be a headline

00:34:12.028 --> 00:34:14.278
from this podcast is, uh, eat the marathon runner.

00:34:14.278 --> 00:34:16.199
Eat the Marathon Runner, not the couch potato.

00:34:16.259 --> 00:34:16.588
Yeah.

00:34:17.398 --> 00:34:17.548
Yeah.

00:34:17.548 --> 00:34:18.179
I think it's a good quote.

00:34:18.179 --> 00:34:20.188
You could use that in some of your branding if you want to.

00:34:20.278 --> 00:34:20.309
Okay.

00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:21.478
Yeah, we'll take that one.

00:34:22.588 --> 00:34:23.518
Eat the marathon running.

00:34:25.409 --> 00:34:30.239
So, um, so tell me about, um, like how did you get here?

00:34:30.298 --> 00:34:33.298
Like to this organization, how long you've been a part of it?

00:34:33.298 --> 00:34:35.398
It goes back farther than you Yeah.

00:34:35.398 --> 00:34:36.028
It seems, yeah.

00:34:36.179 --> 00:34:39.148
So I've been in food my entire life.

00:34:39.179 --> 00:34:39.449
Okay.

00:34:39.509 --> 00:34:43.889
Like literally from the day I was born, I was born on a cattle ranch in Colorado.

00:34:44.278 --> 00:34:45.478
In a hospital nearby, you mean?

00:34:46.139 --> 00:34:47.344
No, I was in, yeah, I was in the hospital.

00:34:47.349 --> 00:34:47.938
Okay, that's good.

00:34:47.943 --> 00:34:50.998
But, but, uh, I grew up in a town called Salida.

00:34:51.003 --> 00:34:51.304
Mm-hmm.

00:34:51.384 --> 00:34:52.289
Up in the mountains.

00:34:52.349 --> 00:34:54.418
Um, we had a cattle ranch.

00:34:55.349 --> 00:34:57.063
I did something called four H Sure.

00:34:57.063 --> 00:34:57.184
Yeah.

00:34:57.184 --> 00:34:59.039
When I was a kid, so like, yeah.

00:34:59.099 --> 00:35:01.438
The first year I could be in four HI think it was eight.

00:35:02.009 --> 00:35:02.429
Nice.

00:35:02.429 --> 00:35:05.233
And sold my first steer at the age of eight and like Nice.

00:35:05.233 --> 00:35:05.489
Got a pocket

00:35:05.489 --> 00:35:07.199
full of money from some local businessman.

00:35:07.378 --> 00:35:07.949
Correct.

00:35:08.489 --> 00:35:11.188
Which I think four H is like an awesome, for sure.

00:35:11.248 --> 00:35:11.818
Awesome thing.

00:35:11.818 --> 00:35:16.679
Like selling, selling my market animals in for h is what put me through college.

00:35:16.739 --> 00:35:17.009
Yeah.

00:35:17.248 --> 00:35:21.119
Like I sold one every year for nine years.

00:35:21.148 --> 00:35:21.539
Right.

00:35:21.958 --> 00:35:22.284
That's cool.

00:35:22.438 --> 00:35:23.818
And I had zero college debt.

00:35:23.818 --> 00:35:25.918
Like I paid for it right through four H.

00:35:25.918 --> 00:35:26.398
That's awesome.

00:35:26.789 --> 00:35:35.039
Um, so I kind of got outta school and then my very first job was with a meat packer in Nebraska.

00:35:35.309 --> 00:35:35.759
Okay.

00:35:35.969 --> 00:35:36.719
So I moved school

00:35:36.719 --> 00:35:37.199
for what?

00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:40.213
Like, uh, uh, ag finance or something like that?

00:35:40.233 --> 00:35:41.278
No, I just went for finance.

00:35:41.369 --> 00:35:41.398
Okay.

00:35:41.398 --> 00:35:41.789
So

00:35:42.208 --> 00:35:47.398
I went for finance and when I graduated it was kind of like in the recession.

00:35:47.998 --> 00:35:48.389
Okay.

00:35:48.898 --> 00:35:49.978
Pretty tough to find something.

00:35:49.978 --> 00:35:51.059
So when I had to go to

00:35:51.059 --> 00:35:51.778
Nebraska, yeah.

00:35:51.778 --> 00:35:56.099
Somebody called me up there like, well, I got a job at a meat packer in Lincoln, Nebraska.

00:35:56.099 --> 00:35:57.088
And you're like, ah, I'll take it.

00:35:59.009 --> 00:35:59.668
But I did that.

00:36:00.148 --> 00:36:01.648
For a couple years.

00:36:01.708 --> 00:36:05.728
Um, that company actually like, ended up going bankrupt.

00:36:05.789 --> 00:36:06.268
Oh, wow.

00:36:06.568 --> 00:36:08.639
Uh, and what was your job like?

00:36:08.699 --> 00:36:10.259
I was like a financial analyst.

00:36:10.318 --> 00:36:10.528
Okay.

00:36:10.528 --> 00:36:11.998
Like very entry level.

00:36:12.028 --> 00:36:12.239
Yeah.

00:36:12.268 --> 00:36:13.438
Finance person.

00:36:14.128 --> 00:36:15.389
And that company,

00:36:15.449 --> 00:36:19.438
you're trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding right away, uh, once you learn what's going on.

00:36:20.009 --> 00:36:20.398
Yeah.

00:36:20.398 --> 00:36:21.568
Or it was above your pay grade.

00:36:21.568 --> 00:36:24.208
You were looking more at divisions and margins on your segments.

00:36:24.208 --> 00:36:24.474
It was, that

00:36:24.474 --> 00:36:26.009
was above my pay grade I'd say.

00:36:26.009 --> 00:36:35.128
Like, you know, where, where mine came in was like, it was kind of macroeconomic conditions is what put that interesting.

00:36:35.128 --> 00:36:35.969
That business under.

00:36:36.418 --> 00:36:44.579
But it was pretty interesting, like when the bankruptcy process happened, we had plans, we had all that, so we went from like 600 employees.

00:36:44.849 --> 00:36:44.938
Mm-hmm.

00:36:45.208 --> 00:36:48.088
And by the time I left, I was one of three.

00:36:48.179 --> 00:36:49.259
So they kept me along.

00:36:49.289 --> 00:36:49.653
Oh, what the heck?

00:36:49.653 --> 00:36:50.608
Just to pay the bills.

00:36:50.639 --> 00:36:50.728
Right.

00:36:50.728 --> 00:36:51.389
And those kinds of things.

00:36:51.389 --> 00:36:51.449
The

00:36:51.449 --> 00:36:52.588
administrative stuff.

00:36:52.978 --> 00:36:53.639
Interesting.

00:36:53.699 --> 00:36:54.268
Which.

00:36:54.659 --> 00:36:57.838
It was pretty, pretty hard lesson for like a finance person.

00:36:57.869 --> 00:36:57.958
Right?

00:36:57.958 --> 00:36:58.048
You're

00:36:58.048 --> 00:36:58.798
like 22.

00:36:59.219 --> 00:37:01.253
Yeah, I was 24 that, yeah,

00:37:02.128 --> 00:37:04.259
probably about 22, 23, something like that.

00:37:04.259 --> 00:37:04.318
Yeah.

00:37:04.318 --> 00:37:04.739
Wild.

00:37:05.128 --> 00:37:10.768
And like, I just remember like handing people their paychecks and they're like, why, why do you get, keep your job?

00:37:10.798 --> 00:37:11.998
You like, I don't know.

00:37:12.059 --> 00:37:13.619
I don't like, I'm cheap.

00:37:13.858 --> 00:37:14.159
Right.

00:37:15.418 --> 00:37:17.608
And they don't have any more processing going on.

00:37:17.608 --> 00:37:18.059
So,

00:37:18.208 --> 00:37:18.389
yeah.

00:37:18.389 --> 00:37:22.798
So it was like my job was just like making sure the bills were paid and, and all that.

00:37:22.798 --> 00:37:28.048
And we, it was, you know, looking back it was a pretty painful time, but like

00:37:28.139 --> 00:37:28.559
sure.

00:37:28.978 --> 00:37:30.659
I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

00:37:30.688 --> 00:37:36.869
'cause it really taught me the value of like, understanding the numbers.

00:37:37.018 --> 00:37:37.349
Sure.

00:37:37.349 --> 00:37:44.009
Understanding how businesses work, disconnecting feelings from business decisions.

00:37:44.039 --> 00:37:44.278
Hmm.

00:37:44.728 --> 00:37:45.119
Yeah.

00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:50.068
Like, and you know, just kind of what it meant to be.

00:37:50.623 --> 00:37:53.954
A good friend and a good boss, and sometimes those can't be the same

00:37:53.954 --> 00:37:54.554
thing.

00:37:54.554 --> 00:37:55.454
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:37:55.693 --> 00:37:56.923
Um, interesting.

00:37:57.014 --> 00:37:57.704
I did that.

00:37:58.333 --> 00:37:59.864
It's harsh but effective.

00:38:00.284 --> 00:38:09.494
It was, it was like, uh, and then my, my old boss called me up and he is like, Hey, I have an opportunity in Europe.

00:38:09.643 --> 00:38:14.534
Do you wanna go work in food ingredients in Germany for a number of years?

00:38:14.534 --> 00:38:14.833
So,

00:38:14.864 --> 00:38:19.034
and you're like a, a, a single 23-year-old guy now by now or something like that?

00:38:19.034 --> 00:38:20.023
Uh, or did you find your,

00:38:20.773 --> 00:38:23.653
so that probably by that point, I'm trying to remember.

00:38:23.653 --> 00:38:25.903
It would've been like 26 or seven.

00:38:25.903 --> 00:38:26.204
Okay.

00:38:26.204 --> 00:38:27.764
So you spent a few years doing this whole thing?

00:38:27.764 --> 00:38:28.273
Yeah, yeah.

00:38:28.273 --> 00:38:35.204
It was a number of years and I was single ish.

00:38:35.503 --> 00:38:35.923
Okay.

00:38:35.923 --> 00:38:43.994
So I was in a relationship for like six months and, and this guy calls me up and he is like, yeah, I got a job.

00:38:43.994 --> 00:38:46.574
Like if you want to come live in Germany.

00:38:47.623 --> 00:38:49.003
I was like, yeah, that sounds pretty awesome.

00:38:49.003 --> 00:38:51.554
And so I talked to my girlfriend.

00:38:51.554 --> 00:38:54.673
I was like, look, I, I have this really cool opportunity

00:38:54.764 --> 00:38:55.063
yeah.

00:38:55.423 --> 00:38:58.753
In Germany, but like it's gonna require me to move.

00:38:59.563 --> 00:39:00.704
I'd love for you to come.

00:39:00.704 --> 00:39:01.034
Right?

00:39:01.813 --> 00:39:04.333
And she looked at me and she's like, yes,

00:39:04.813 --> 00:39:05.114
okay.

00:39:05.503 --> 00:39:06.554
And now she's my wife.

00:39:06.764 --> 00:39:06.974
Great.

00:39:07.393 --> 00:39:07.603
Good.

00:39:07.813 --> 00:39:08.233
I love it.

00:39:09.103 --> 00:39:11.264
Those are quite the leap on her right point.

00:39:11.264 --> 00:39:13.423
Like I would be like, I don't know, minister, that's pretty cool.

00:39:13.693 --> 00:39:13.994
I mean, it's

00:39:13.994 --> 00:39:15.403
basically almost like.

00:39:16.708 --> 00:39:17.998
Probably yes.

00:39:18.028 --> 00:39:18.088
Yeah.

00:39:18.088 --> 00:39:22.858
You know, that's a, it's a, a lot of probably inputs went in her decision, uh, but it went pretty quick.

00:39:22.858 --> 00:39:23.278
So, yeah.

00:39:23.278 --> 00:39:24.418
That's a kudos to you there.

00:39:25.048 --> 00:39:26.009
So what's her name by the way?

00:39:26.068 --> 00:39:26.518
Melody.

00:39:26.548 --> 00:39:27.088
Hi Melody.

00:39:27.148 --> 00:39:28.528
You'll probably listen to this podcast.

00:39:29.128 --> 00:39:32.159
Um, and so you and Melody bundle off to where in Germany.

00:39:32.219 --> 00:39:35.188
So we were in the far north in a town called Lubeck.

00:39:35.248 --> 00:39:35.608
Okay.

00:39:35.608 --> 00:39:35.789
Germany.

00:39:35.938 --> 00:39:36.298
All right.

00:39:36.449 --> 00:39:38.998
Working for a food ingredient company.

00:39:39.208 --> 00:39:41.039
Kind of a big multinational,

00:39:41.159 --> 00:39:47.398
like when you say a food ingredient company, they're like breaking down certain things into other stuff or, or,

00:39:47.608 --> 00:39:49.768
um, so the company was called Tate and Lyle.

00:39:49.949 --> 00:39:50.128
Okay.

00:39:50.128 --> 00:39:51.329
Still, still is Tate Lyle.

00:39:51.329 --> 00:39:51.838
Like, okay.

00:39:51.869 --> 00:39:52.768
It's Origin.

00:39:52.918 --> 00:39:55.918
Origins were, it was a sugar company originally.

00:39:55.918 --> 00:39:56.068
Okay.

00:39:56.068 --> 00:40:02.668
So they made sugar inside the US they have a massive sugar and like corn starch business.

00:40:02.668 --> 00:40:02.699
Okay.

00:40:02.699 --> 00:40:03.869
And by massive, I mean like.

00:40:05.353 --> 00:40:05.923
I can't remember.

00:40:06.134 --> 00:40:07.123
I don't know, like Arthur of Daniels

00:40:07.123 --> 00:40:10.063
Midland size, but not quite that big, but yeah, pretty darn close.

00:40:10.094 --> 00:40:10.184
Wow.

00:40:10.184 --> 00:40:10.784
Like, okay.

00:40:10.844 --> 00:40:14.594
They would send train loads of high fructose corn syrup to Gotcha.

00:40:14.594 --> 00:40:16.273
PepsiCo on a weekly basis.

00:40:16.278 --> 00:40:17.414
Gotcha, gotcha.

00:40:17.443 --> 00:40:17.684
Okay.

00:40:17.684 --> 00:40:19.123
It was, it was impressive stuff.

00:40:19.123 --> 00:40:19.664
Yeah.

00:40:19.664 --> 00:40:19.673
Yeah.

00:40:19.934 --> 00:40:25.454
Uh, the division I worked in is kind of what I would call the Betty Crocker division.

00:40:25.483 --> 00:40:25.543
Okay.

00:40:25.543 --> 00:40:27.353
So like if you go make a cake Yeah, yeah.

00:40:27.643 --> 00:40:32.204
You can buy the flour, the sugar, and all the ingredients and try to figure out how to make a cake.

00:40:32.233 --> 00:40:32.664
Yeah, yeah.

00:40:32.713 --> 00:40:35.023
Or you can buy a box, box of Betty cracker, add an egg

00:40:35.023 --> 00:40:37.304
to it, and a third of a cup of oil or something.

00:40:37.483 --> 00:40:37.813
Yep.

00:40:38.384 --> 00:40:41.713
And that's kind of what we did for like, a lot of different companies.

00:40:41.744 --> 00:40:41.773
Okay.

00:40:41.773 --> 00:40:42.434
So like,

00:40:42.463 --> 00:40:49.574
and even if it was like a, a production cake maker out of this town here or whatever, they could just use your cake, make mix

00:40:49.813 --> 00:40:51.858
for, for dairy is what it was.

00:40:51.864 --> 00:40:51.974
Okay.

00:40:52.153 --> 00:40:52.393
Okay.

00:40:52.398 --> 00:40:59.954
So it was like, like, I won't name names, but like the number one seller of soft serve ice cream.

00:41:00.364 --> 00:41:03.929
Which is a fast food restaurant that's in every, every city town.

00:41:03.958 --> 00:41:04.409
Yeah.

00:41:04.409 --> 00:41:04.418
Yeah.

00:41:04.978 --> 00:41:08.699
You know, they would come to us and be like, I want the best tastings, vanilla ice cream.

00:41:08.849 --> 00:41:09.358
Right.

00:41:09.539 --> 00:41:14.909
And so we would, you know, co-develop with them and be like, okay, pour this bag Yeah.

00:41:14.909 --> 00:41:17.639
Into this much milk and run it through your ice cream maker.

00:41:17.728 --> 00:41:18.119
Interesting.

00:41:18.123 --> 00:41:26.278
And you have, and at one point I think we had developed, like, I want to say it was probably like 95% you dominant market

00:41:26.278 --> 00:41:26.699
share.

00:41:26.699 --> 00:41:27.568
It was just yours.

00:41:27.688 --> 00:41:28.048
Yeah.

00:41:28.289 --> 00:41:28.858
Wow.

00:41:28.858 --> 00:41:29.458
That's crazy.

00:41:29.458 --> 00:41:31.798
And it was like super easy too.

00:41:31.798 --> 00:41:36.568
Like you could have a plug, a 14-year-old kid in there putting those ingredients together and measuring'em.

00:41:36.748 --> 00:41:36.929
Yeah.

00:41:36.929 --> 00:41:38.188
And then you got delicious ice cream.

00:41:38.398 --> 00:41:38.998
Exactly.

00:41:39.028 --> 00:41:39.659
Interesting.

00:41:39.719 --> 00:41:46.648
So, you know, one of the stories I've always found funny is when, uh, the Betty Crocker cake mix kind of stuff, uh, first came out.

00:41:46.648 --> 00:41:46.739
Mm-hmm.

00:41:46.978 --> 00:41:49.918
It didn't require the egg and the oil.

00:41:50.039 --> 00:41:50.579
Oh, really?

00:41:50.699 --> 00:41:50.909
Yeah.

00:41:50.909 --> 00:41:51.778
It was just water.

00:41:52.934 --> 00:41:55.724
And nobody bought it because it didn't seem like real cooking.

00:41:55.724 --> 00:42:01.813
But once they backed the egg and the oil out, it made you mix your own damn egg and oil in there just

00:42:01.813 --> 00:42:03.733
to give the perception that you were cooking a little bit more.

00:42:03.733 --> 00:42:04.333
Doing something.

00:42:04.393 --> 00:42:05.608
Yes, exactly.

00:42:05.889 --> 00:42:06.009
Interesting.

00:42:06.009 --> 00:42:08.474
And then people are like, oh, I'm making you a cake, honey.

00:42:09.403 --> 00:42:10.123
I did not know that.

00:42:10.184 --> 00:42:29.833
Yeah, that's, uh, maybe that's just an urban legend, but I'm pretty sure that's a, a truism from history and uh, but if you're the owner of a polar king or anything like that, then uh, you know, having your kids just be able to dump these ingredients in there and turn it back on and be ready to serve, serve, serve baby.

00:42:30.614 --> 00:42:30.673
Yeah.

00:42:30.673 --> 00:42:31.063
Interesting.

00:42:31.784 --> 00:42:33.373
Yeah, I didn't know that about Betty Crocker.

00:42:33.403 --> 00:42:33.643
Yeah.

00:42:33.643 --> 00:42:33.824
Super.

00:42:33.824 --> 00:42:34.003
Anyway.

00:42:34.003 --> 00:42:34.724
That's interesting.

00:42:34.724 --> 00:42:34.844
What I

00:42:34.844 --> 00:42:37.603
think I read some time, a long time ago, I could be wrong.

00:42:38.054 --> 00:42:41.684
So when I was there, like that was really an r and d company.

00:42:41.893 --> 00:42:42.014
Yeah.

00:42:42.014 --> 00:42:42.914
More than a food company.

00:42:42.914 --> 00:42:43.123
Yeah.

00:42:43.123 --> 00:42:43.449
Like it was.

00:42:44.443 --> 00:42:45.614
It was crazy.

00:42:45.614 --> 00:42:47.744
Like we're constantly sampling products.

00:42:47.804 --> 00:42:48.313
Yeah.

00:42:48.494 --> 00:42:48.943
Interesting.

00:42:48.943 --> 00:42:50.684
In all fairness, I put on a ton of weight.

00:42:50.773 --> 00:42:50.893
I

00:42:50.893 --> 00:42:51.434
don't doubt

00:42:51.884 --> 00:42:52.753
in my time there.

00:42:52.753 --> 00:42:54.583
Like when you're sampling ice cream, everything.

00:42:54.583 --> 00:42:54.829
Did you bring some

00:42:54.829 --> 00:43:01.514
home to Melody too and she wants, plus you had beer fests and all that kind of good stuff, I'm sure.

00:43:01.634 --> 00:43:01.934
Yeah.

00:43:02.023 --> 00:43:10.693
Um, so tell me like, not to get into the, into the weeds on it, but like we hear a lot about processed foods and things like that.

00:43:10.693 --> 00:43:14.474
Like did they put a lot of stuff you don't want to eat in there too?

00:43:14.804 --> 00:43:17.324
Or was it really kind of relatively pure ingredients?

00:43:17.563 --> 00:43:22.364
Um, it was a lot of things.

00:43:22.393 --> 00:43:23.173
How do I put it?

00:43:23.173 --> 00:43:26.804
The best All ingredients start somewhat here.

00:43:26.954 --> 00:43:27.344
Yeah.

00:43:27.704 --> 00:43:30.373
Uh, it all depends on the processing along the way.

00:43:30.853 --> 00:43:31.123
Mm-hmm.

00:43:31.364 --> 00:43:32.143
So.

00:43:32.548 --> 00:43:39.478
You know, we did a lot with like different kinds of gums that like are on the bad list.

00:43:39.659 --> 00:43:40.018
Yeah, yeah.

00:43:40.048 --> 00:43:40.619
Like yeah.

00:43:40.623 --> 00:43:40.634
Yeah.

00:43:40.708 --> 00:43:44.188
You know, carins, gure, gums, um,

00:43:45.599 --> 00:43:49.918
what's the stuff they put in, uh, Asian food to make it taste really delicious.

00:43:49.949 --> 00:43:50.579
MSG.

00:43:50.608 --> 00:43:51.298
Yes.

00:43:51.358 --> 00:43:53.248
We didn't do any MSG like, well,

00:43:53.248 --> 00:43:57.449
and when I was a kid people were like, MSG is terrible for you and this and that, whatever.

00:43:57.449 --> 00:44:03.478
And then like, it seems like that's kind of turned so now like even some chefs I watch on YouTube and stuff are like, you know, you, it's okay.

00:44:03.478 --> 00:44:04.559
You can put a little MSG in.

00:44:04.559 --> 00:44:04.739
There

00:44:04.978 --> 00:44:09.793
isn't MSG where it's just supposed to make you feel full and then like, no, I think it's

00:44:09.793 --> 00:44:12.659
like a more of like a flavor magnifier.

00:44:12.688 --> 00:44:13.739
Like is it salt?

00:44:13.739 --> 00:44:17.608
Like salt plus umami is how I have it understood in my little brain

00:44:18.509 --> 00:44:19.108
maybe,

00:44:19.259 --> 00:44:19.978
but I don't know.

00:44:20.039 --> 00:44:23.068
I thought it was something to like help create fullness.

00:44:23.278 --> 00:44:25.559
Oh no, I don't think so.

00:44:26.369 --> 00:44:26.759
I don't know.

00:44:26.759 --> 00:44:26.943
I don't know.

00:44:27.208 --> 00:44:27.688
We'll have to.

00:44:28.273 --> 00:44:29.414
Look that up afterwards.

00:44:29.474 --> 00:44:32.918
I know it wasn't good for you, or at least that that was what it was like.

00:44:32.918 --> 00:44:33.119
So

00:44:33.119 --> 00:44:37.543
you're in North Germany working at this, at this food ingredients company and exploring, right?

00:44:37.543 --> 00:44:37.693
Yep.

00:44:37.784 --> 00:44:44.653
Because, uh, you were from, you know, a kid from a small town Colorado situation, moved to Lincoln, which was your big town experience up to that point.

00:44:45.523 --> 00:44:48.704
Yeah, so lived in Germany for a couple years.

00:44:48.793 --> 00:44:52.454
Um, did really, really good in the food ingredient company.

00:44:53.233 --> 00:44:54.164
Really enjoyed it.

00:44:54.253 --> 00:44:59.023
Uh, spent like six months in London where the corporate headquarters were.

00:44:59.054 --> 00:44:59.233
Okay.

00:44:59.233 --> 00:44:59.864
Which was really cool.

00:44:59.864 --> 00:45:00.239
Still in

00:45:00.239 --> 00:45:01.753
a financial focused element.

00:45:01.753 --> 00:45:02.083
Yep, yep.

00:45:02.083 --> 00:45:03.164
So my background's finance.

00:45:03.164 --> 00:45:03.554
So even though

00:45:03.554 --> 00:45:08.653
they're an RD company, you're still focused on the numbers part of it and hey, hey, hey, you spent enough on this project.

00:45:08.653 --> 00:45:09.284
Is it ready?

00:45:09.373 --> 00:45:09.523
No.

00:45:10.003 --> 00:45:14.838
'cause we were still a food, like it was r and d, but you're still just selling food products fair.

00:45:15.298 --> 00:45:18.074
So it was a lot of like, you know, making sure that.

00:45:18.614 --> 00:45:20.414
Products made money and yeah.

00:45:20.414 --> 00:45:25.934
What are the import duties into these countries and all that stuff.

00:45:25.934 --> 00:45:26.248
So yeah.

00:45:26.253 --> 00:45:26.414
Yeah.

00:45:26.414 --> 00:45:27.614
Where do we want to sell to?

00:45:27.853 --> 00:45:28.454
Exactly.

00:45:28.483 --> 00:45:28.994
Interesting.

00:45:29.233 --> 00:45:29.534
Yeah.

00:45:29.653 --> 00:45:36.284
Um, I remember like, it was one of our biggest countries when I was on that side was like, into Russia.

00:45:36.673 --> 00:45:36.914
Okay.

00:45:36.914 --> 00:45:45.943
And then like, we were a UK based company, and then they had like, the UK implemented this, um, anti-bribery act.

00:45:46.063 --> 00:45:46.543
Okay.

00:45:46.963 --> 00:45:49.244
And we're like, it completely killed the Russian business.

00:45:49.244 --> 00:45:54.403
They're like, well, you know, unless there's bribes happening, like, yeah, so you have no business.

00:45:54.403 --> 00:45:59.414
Like, and I remember like crazy times, but I perfect fix it guys.

00:46:01.634 --> 00:46:02.923
It was like, yeah.

00:46:02.923 --> 00:46:14.414
It was just like certain countries, like I just, I clearly remember the Russian thing where like, they're like, yeah, well, unless, like you're just, we lost the entire Russian business.

00:46:14.414 --> 00:46:14.684
Interesting.

00:46:15.958 --> 00:46:20.579
It's like, well, unless you pay something to get things across the border, they're not getting across the border.

00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:21.329
Oh, interesting.

00:46:21.958 --> 00:46:22.168
Huh.

00:46:22.378 --> 00:46:23.938
Yeah, it was pretty interesting times.

00:46:24.179 --> 00:46:26.159
Um, maybe that's good.

00:46:26.159 --> 00:46:27.239
Maybe it's not, I don't know.

00:46:27.239 --> 00:46:27.539
Right.

00:46:27.539 --> 00:46:30.838
Like their companies moved a lot more stuff when it was Okay.

00:46:30.838 --> 00:46:33.389
You know, tariff by another name,

00:46:34.018 --> 00:46:35.188
but, um,

00:46:35.759 --> 00:46:39.869
locally, uh, locally applied tariff is what I would say.

00:46:39.958 --> 00:46:40.228
Yeah.

00:46:40.259 --> 00:46:41.219
Like a bribe.

00:46:41.458 --> 00:46:45.509
It's a, it's a very narrow, very narrow tariff to go across

00:46:45.509 --> 00:46:46.409
this county line.

00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:46.889
Yeah.

00:46:47.074 --> 00:46:47.364
Yeah.

00:46:47.548 --> 00:46:49.018
Pretty much wrote this boundary.

00:46:50.099 --> 00:46:52.923
So spent a little time in, in Germany, found your way back.

00:46:53.219 --> 00:46:53.548
Yep.

00:46:53.548 --> 00:46:55.739
Came back with the company in Chicago.

00:46:55.739 --> 00:46:55.858
Okay.

00:46:55.918 --> 00:46:56.728
For a number of years.

00:46:56.728 --> 00:47:02.128
We had our first child and my wife's like, yeah, I really want, like, I'm going back to Colorado with her without you.

00:47:02.128 --> 00:47:02.969
I was like, okay, okay.

00:47:02.969 --> 00:47:03.478
I'm coming too.

00:47:04.199 --> 00:47:04.559
Where was

00:47:04.559 --> 00:47:05.039
she from?

00:47:05.278 --> 00:47:06.568
Uh, she's from Greeley, so.

00:47:06.568 --> 00:47:07.018
Okay.

00:47:07.108 --> 00:47:07.378
Yep.

00:47:08.159 --> 00:47:14.278
Um, so we moved back and I started working for an organic produce company.

00:47:14.923 --> 00:47:16.844
So a company called Earthbound Farms.

00:47:16.963 --> 00:47:17.173
Okay.

00:47:17.173 --> 00:47:19.574
They sell, you know, the tub lettuce?

00:47:19.634 --> 00:47:19.693
Yeah.

00:47:19.693 --> 00:47:20.954
Spring mix spinach.

00:47:21.043 --> 00:47:21.324
Yep, yep.

00:47:22.003 --> 00:47:23.324
Pretty much every of the products before

00:47:24.284 --> 00:47:25.123
every grocery store.

00:47:25.123 --> 00:47:25.963
I think Lucky's carries it

00:47:25.963 --> 00:47:26.443
right?

00:47:26.503 --> 00:47:27.614
Lucky's carries it.

00:47:27.853 --> 00:47:30.643
Um, yeah, I mean, trying to remember.

00:47:30.643 --> 00:47:31.514
I've been, I'm sure.

00:47:31.934 --> 00:47:32.264
But yeah.

00:47:33.313 --> 00:47:35.438
Uh, they were so similar thing, huge business similar.

00:47:35.438 --> 00:47:36.434
They're, they're sourcing

00:47:36.434 --> 00:47:41.923
these, this kind of quality category, this kind of organic or non-organic whatever.

00:47:41.923 --> 00:47:43.603
And just only organic for the earthbound.

00:47:43.634 --> 00:47:43.844
Yep.

00:47:43.934 --> 00:47:44.264
Okay.

00:47:44.443 --> 00:47:49.364
And we actually had ranches and farms, so we farm like 27,000 acres Oh wow.

00:47:49.543 --> 00:47:50.233
Of organic plan.

00:47:50.478 --> 00:47:53.023
Like it was the largest organic farm in the nation.

00:47:53.054 --> 00:47:53.594
Oh dang.

00:47:53.864 --> 00:47:54.224
Okay.

00:47:54.224 --> 00:47:55.664
Like huge.

00:47:56.563 --> 00:47:59.534
It's almost a million square foot salad plant.

00:47:59.534 --> 00:48:00.284
Dang.

00:48:00.523 --> 00:48:01.994
Like we had Okay.

00:48:01.994 --> 00:48:03.914
So a lot of it was its own production?

00:48:03.943 --> 00:48:05.204
Yeah, it was.

00:48:05.204 --> 00:48:05.833
It was a big company.

00:48:05.864 --> 00:48:06.373
Yeah.

00:48:06.373 --> 00:48:06.384
Yeah.

00:48:06.434 --> 00:48:06.884
Interesting.

00:48:07.003 --> 00:48:11.023
Um, and at that time, that company, we were.

00:48:11.398 --> 00:48:15.329
A company called WhiteWave Foods who had like Horizon Organic Dairy.

00:48:15.389 --> 00:48:15.719
Oh, sure.

00:48:15.929 --> 00:48:16.438
Silk.

00:48:16.438 --> 00:48:18.059
The Soy milks International Delight.

00:48:18.059 --> 00:48:18.148
Yep.

00:48:18.148 --> 00:48:18.449
They must

00:48:18.449 --> 00:48:19.318
move a lot of product too.

00:48:19.349 --> 00:48:20.789
'cause they got a lot of tons bridge space.

00:48:20.789 --> 00:48:21.358
I know that.

00:48:21.418 --> 00:48:21.659
Tons.

00:48:21.659 --> 00:48:23.938
It's crazy how much Silk coverage is.

00:48:24.119 --> 00:48:24.509
Yeah.

00:48:24.599 --> 00:48:25.679
They got all these different flavors.

00:48:25.679 --> 00:48:26.878
But it all gets Chef Space.

00:48:27.838 --> 00:48:32.373
And that company WhiteWave got acquired by Danone or Danon Yogurt.

00:48:32.514 --> 00:48:32.733
Oh

00:48:32.733 --> 00:48:32.893
yeah.

00:48:33.083 --> 00:48:33.373
Okay.

00:48:33.539 --> 00:48:35.009
Danone is how you're supposed to say that.

00:48:35.309 --> 00:48:39.838
Uh, so the yogurt's danon, but the holding company, the ownership is Danone.

00:48:39.974 --> 00:48:40.173
I see.

00:48:40.173 --> 00:48:40.949
Because it's a French company.

00:48:40.954 --> 00:48:41.293
Yeah, yeah.

00:48:41.293 --> 00:48:41.579
I got it.

00:48:42.358 --> 00:48:45.358
And they got acquired and they're like, why do you have a produce brand?

00:48:45.568 --> 00:48:46.168
Oh, interesting.

00:48:46.259 --> 00:48:46.588
Okay.

00:48:46.829 --> 00:48:49.768
So ended up selling that company.

00:48:49.768 --> 00:48:53.128
So I was with, with Earthbound for like six years.

00:48:53.159 --> 00:48:53.188
Okay.

00:48:53.188 --> 00:48:56.429
And I was kind of like employee number one when WhiteWave acquired it.

00:48:56.518 --> 00:48:56.969
Okay.

00:48:57.179 --> 00:48:59.534
And then I was the one that sold it at the end.

00:48:59.534 --> 00:48:59.614
Oh,

00:48:59.733 --> 00:48:59.853
interesting.

00:48:59.873 --> 00:49:00.094
Man.

00:49:00.094 --> 00:49:03.179
You were like the last guy on the boat a couple times already here.

00:49:03.208 --> 00:49:03.599
Yeah.

00:49:04.528 --> 00:49:07.858
And I had the opportunity to stay there or.

00:49:08.429 --> 00:49:10.018
Kind of do something else.

00:49:10.018 --> 00:49:11.699
And it's like, I like the smaller companies.

00:49:11.699 --> 00:49:18.809
Like when in those really big companies, I always think of things as like, it's like an inch wide and a mile deep.

00:49:18.809 --> 00:49:25.498
Like Yeah, you might be the, the nationwide expert on Yeah, you might, transportation might be just crushing it

00:49:25.498 --> 00:49:26.608
at your job, but yeah.

00:49:27.298 --> 00:49:30.179
Nobody notices and you don't make any change in the overall business.

00:49:30.179 --> 00:49:30.929
Exactly.

00:49:31.469 --> 00:49:34.858
And I like to be more of a generalist, so I kind of went to a smaller company.

00:49:34.949 --> 00:49:35.309
Okay.

00:49:35.639 --> 00:49:43.329
Uh, and did like ice cream for a year or so, and I was like, ah, it doesn't really align with like what I like.

00:49:43.329 --> 00:49:43.483
Yeah.

00:49:43.619 --> 00:49:43.918
Like

00:49:43.949 --> 00:49:45.568
truth is ice cream makes me heavy.

00:49:46.708 --> 00:49:47.219
It's slow.

00:49:47.224 --> 00:49:47.563
That's your right.

00:49:47.938 --> 00:49:48.358
That's your right.

00:49:49.978 --> 00:49:59.039
And then I, I had the opportunity to be, um, get my first like chief financial officer job at a plant-based meat company.

00:49:59.369 --> 00:49:59.789
Okay.

00:50:00.028 --> 00:50:01.829
A local one in, in Boulder.

00:50:02.684 --> 00:50:06.224
And they were, you know, cleaner for the plant-based meats.

00:50:06.253 --> 00:50:06.344
Yeah.

00:50:06.344 --> 00:50:08.923
Because most plant based meats are now pretty nasty too.

00:50:08.954 --> 00:50:09.134
Yeah.

00:50:09.159 --> 00:50:09.278
Yeah.

00:50:09.284 --> 00:50:10.063
Pretty nasty.

00:50:11.023 --> 00:50:16.393
I spent like three years there and I was just like, this doesn't quite align with who I am.

00:50:16.393 --> 00:50:16.454
Yeah.

00:50:16.454 --> 00:50:17.923
Like as a cattle rancher, right.

00:50:18.134 --> 00:50:19.244
Growing up like,

00:50:19.393 --> 00:50:26.414
well, and you know, the truth is you can't just can't grow soybeans places where most of the cows do their thing, you know?

00:50:26.474 --> 00:50:26.534
Yeah.

00:50:26.534 --> 00:50:28.123
So it's not really that great of a

00:50:28.994 --> 00:50:29.713
alternative,

00:50:29.773 --> 00:50:30.884
ethical alternative.

00:50:30.943 --> 00:50:31.333
Really.

00:50:31.574 --> 00:50:39.344
Well, and I think like most consumers have gotten to the point, like, if you want to reduce your meat consumption, eat more fruits and vegetables, just do it.

00:50:39.344 --> 00:50:42.284
Like don't have more process things like totally.

00:50:43.498 --> 00:50:46.588
Yeah, I'm a big fan of fruits and vegetables and healthy things too.

00:50:46.588 --> 00:50:46.949
And I like a

00:50:46.949 --> 00:50:47.639
veggie burger.

00:50:47.639 --> 00:50:51.688
Like one of my, uh, guilty pleasures is, oh, what's it called?

00:50:51.748 --> 00:50:54.119
Oh, the Hypocrite Burger at Big Al's.

00:50:54.358 --> 00:50:54.659
Okay.

00:50:54.659 --> 00:50:55.349
I've never had it.

00:50:55.739 --> 00:51:03.869
The, I think it's called the hippie crit, uh, because it's a burger, like a quarter pound burger and then a quarter pound, uh, vegetarian veggie burger.

00:51:04.213 --> 00:51:04.443
Oh, okay.

00:51:05.099 --> 00:51:07.708
And then a sauce and lettuce, tomato so's both.

00:51:07.708 --> 00:51:07.739
It is both.

00:51:07.768 --> 00:51:08.128
Oh, interesting.

00:51:08.128 --> 00:51:09.719
Real beef and a veggie burger.

00:51:09.869 --> 00:51:10.349
Interesting.

00:51:11.039 --> 00:51:14.429
Which sounds funny, but their veggie burger is actually quite nice.

00:51:14.429 --> 00:51:16.048
It's one of the bean based ones Yep.

00:51:16.048 --> 00:51:17.309
That have a little texture.

00:51:17.309 --> 00:51:20.699
And, and it's not trying to be, it's not trying to pretend it's beef.

00:51:20.759 --> 00:51:20.818
Yeah.

00:51:21.389 --> 00:51:27.869
It's just being a proud veggie burger, you know, being proud with a, with a bean heavy con texture, you know, bean forward veggie burger.

00:51:27.869 --> 00:51:29.818
And I, I've got respect for that.

00:51:30.059 --> 00:51:30.268
Yep.

00:51:30.599 --> 00:51:35.338
But don't try to grow me something with that starts as some sort of mold and then tell me it's beef.

00:51:35.369 --> 00:51:36.509
'cause I know what you're lying.

00:51:36.688 --> 00:51:37.048
Yeah.

00:51:38.338 --> 00:51:40.079
And that's kind of where I, like, I digress

00:51:40.199 --> 00:51:46.949
over the years with the few years I was there, I was like, yeah, this just doesn't, doesn't align with who I am.

00:51:46.978 --> 00:51:47.338
Yeah.

00:51:47.398 --> 00:51:50.608
And so that's when I had come over to Grass Fit Foods.

00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:51.028
Okay.

00:51:51.208 --> 00:51:53.668
So I originally joined as the CFO Okay.

00:51:53.668 --> 00:51:57.389
Of the company, uh, little over three years.

00:51:57.509 --> 00:51:57.898
Okay.

00:51:57.989 --> 00:52:01.108
And that was right when the two Teton and Sun Fed were merging.

00:52:01.108 --> 00:52:01.139
Okay.

00:52:01.168 --> 00:52:03.748
So originally they were both standalone businesses.

00:52:03.778 --> 00:52:04.199
Okay.

00:52:04.679 --> 00:52:05.489
They,

00:52:05.579 --> 00:52:06.838
that must have been kind of interesting to.

00:52:07.594 --> 00:52:10.978
Have like a holding company, but still the brands beneath kind of thing.

00:52:11.219 --> 00:52:12.403
No, that's pretty common.

00:52:12.403 --> 00:52:12.603
Yeah.

00:52:12.603 --> 00:52:13.018
Pretty straightforward.

00:52:13.074 --> 00:52:14.804
Like, like WhiteWave when I was there.

00:52:14.914 --> 00:52:15.204
Sure.

00:52:15.204 --> 00:52:17.364
Like WhiteWave was, you'd already it holding company and like seen

00:52:17.364 --> 00:52:19.228
before had nothing to do with the grass or the whatever.

00:52:19.228 --> 00:52:21.659
The, the farm Earthbound Farm Earthbound Farms, yeah.

00:52:21.929 --> 00:52:22.498
Brand.

00:52:22.918 --> 00:52:23.159
Yep.

00:52:23.219 --> 00:52:23.639
Exactly.

00:52:23.639 --> 00:52:24.268
Makes Okay.

00:52:24.418 --> 00:52:24.659
Yep.

00:52:24.778 --> 00:52:27.989
Every little, you know, brand kind of had its own.

00:52:28.079 --> 00:52:28.559
Yeah.

00:52:28.559 --> 00:52:28.568
Yeah.

00:52:28.798 --> 00:52:32.068
So I came on right before the merger.

00:52:32.159 --> 00:52:40.079
Um, that merger came with plenty of its financial challenges that the ownership didn't quite expect.

00:52:40.378 --> 00:52:40.768
Gotcha.

00:52:40.829 --> 00:52:47.998
Um, so we had to go through a couple years of some pretty hard financial challenges, but kind of got through that.

00:52:48.688 --> 00:52:49.409
And

00:52:49.469 --> 00:52:55.469
so did, was it a new owner that, like a private equity firm or something that bought these two and put'em together?

00:52:55.469 --> 00:52:59.219
Or was the owner of one of'em the owner before or how did that all all come together?

00:52:59.219 --> 00:52:59.324
Yeah, the owner,

00:52:59.338 --> 00:53:00.298
the owner of one.

00:53:01.048 --> 00:53:06.268
Uh, was the one that kind of orchestrated the deal and then it was gonna be like ownership on both sides.

00:53:06.298 --> 00:53:07.164
Okay, got it.

00:53:07.364 --> 00:53:09.239
A merger of equals stronger together.

00:53:09.239 --> 00:53:09.869
Correct?

00:53:09.898 --> 00:53:10.498
Correct.

00:53:10.588 --> 00:53:12.208
Oh, something's not right here.

00:53:12.208 --> 00:53:12.268
Yeah.

00:53:12.273 --> 00:53:13.443
Something isn't adding up

00:53:13.454 --> 00:53:15.179
quite something didn't quite work out.

00:53:15.179 --> 00:53:15.748
Interesting.

00:53:16.139 --> 00:53:20.338
And so it was, it did not go nearly according to plan.

00:53:20.398 --> 00:53:20.759
Okay.

00:53:21.179 --> 00:53:21.659
Um,

00:53:21.748 --> 00:53:27.329
and you're coming in kind of after people know it didn't go nearly according to plan or while they're figuring it out or?

00:53:27.389 --> 00:53:31.228
No, I actually came in, I came in one week before the merger happened.

00:53:31.588 --> 00:53:32.278
Oh, okay.

00:53:32.278 --> 00:53:32.458
So

00:53:32.458 --> 00:53:36.324
they had hired me saying like, Hey, you know, these two businesses just a simple

00:53:36.539 --> 00:53:39.119
merger, everybody's all square, we're great friends.

00:53:39.329 --> 00:53:45.599
And they didn't wanna bring me on'cause they didn't think like the businesses were big enough standalone for A CFO.

00:53:45.688 --> 00:53:46.108
Okay.

00:53:46.378 --> 00:53:50.039
And they're like, once it's merged, like then it makes a ton of sense.

00:53:50.188 --> 00:53:50.309
Okay.

00:53:50.458 --> 00:53:53.068
So they brought me on for the merger and then.

00:53:54.088 --> 00:54:00.088
About two weeks, three weeks after the merger, I discovered some discrepancies in the, the accounts and I was like, oh man.

00:54:00.088 --> 00:54:00.989
Like on

00:54:00.989 --> 00:54:02.248
just one side more?

00:54:02.309 --> 00:54:02.489
Yeah.

00:54:02.489 --> 00:54:03.298
On one side.

00:54:03.509 --> 00:54:04.048
Interesting.

00:54:04.409 --> 00:54:07.438
So then kind of changed everything.

00:54:07.619 --> 00:54:08.128
Yeah.

00:54:08.248 --> 00:54:16.199
Uh, spent the next year and a half or so just trying to fix all the financial troubles that the one side had.

00:54:16.259 --> 00:54:16.768
Wow.

00:54:17.369 --> 00:54:18.119
Got it fixed.

00:54:18.119 --> 00:54:21.148
And, and the ownership was like, Hey, like you did a great job.

00:54:21.778 --> 00:54:25.498
This clearly is more like you understand beef.

00:54:25.829 --> 00:54:26.128
Yeah.

00:54:26.159 --> 00:54:26.699
Deeply.

00:54:26.728 --> 00:54:31.018
We got this douche bag with the Harvard MBA that's been the CEO and he sucks.

00:54:31.438 --> 00:54:32.789
Would you like to be the CEO?

00:54:33.268 --> 00:54:41.429
I mean, I'm sure they didn't say it quite like that anyway, but So you got your chance to swing at the Yeah.

00:54:41.429 --> 00:54:41.998
So they're like, Hey, chair.

00:54:42.373 --> 00:54:47.139
If you want, like this is your chance, if you wanna run the company and what to run.

00:54:47.139 --> 00:54:47.563
And what did, honestly,

00:54:47.563 --> 00:54:48.974
what did you think of the CEO o previously?

00:54:49.003 --> 00:54:50.864
'cause you reported to that person, I assume.

00:54:51.164 --> 00:54:51.614
Yeah, I think

00:54:51.853 --> 00:54:52.393
he was fine.

00:54:52.753 --> 00:54:53.503
He was a good guy.

00:54:53.503 --> 00:54:53.744
Like,

00:54:53.744 --> 00:54:54.014
yeah.

00:54:54.119 --> 00:54:54.338
Uh,

00:54:54.673 --> 00:54:56.443
but he didn't understand the industry like you did?

00:54:56.833 --> 00:54:57.134
No.

00:54:57.134 --> 00:54:58.393
He ultimately, I'd say like, sounds

00:54:58.393 --> 00:54:58.634
like

00:55:00.914 --> 00:55:07.094
every person has their own unique perspectives and their unique styles.

00:55:07.153 --> 00:55:07.393
Yeah.

00:55:08.204 --> 00:55:10.483
Uh, he, he was a long time meat veteran.

00:55:10.483 --> 00:55:10.514
Okay.

00:55:10.543 --> 00:55:11.893
He's still in the meat industry.

00:55:12.043 --> 00:55:12.373
Okay.

00:55:13.423 --> 00:55:30.583
Uh, I just, you know, I think his perspective and his vision for the company was all around that merger and when that merger didn't work and it just kind of put him on his heels maybe.

00:55:30.588 --> 00:55:30.768
Yeah.

00:55:30.909 --> 00:55:34.289
And yeah, I don't like to talk badly about anybody, but like Yeah.

00:55:34.364 --> 00:55:39.494
But he wasn't quite as engaged in the future of it as much after feeling like he kind of.

00:55:40.454 --> 00:55:42.974
Did a, uh, air ball on that, that merger.

00:55:42.978 --> 00:55:45.583
Pretty, yeah, it was kind of a deflating, yeah.

00:55:45.583 --> 00:55:47.324
Uh, kind of a, a burn situation.

00:55:47.384 --> 00:55:47.864
Yeah.

00:55:47.864 --> 00:55:47.923
Yeah.

00:55:47.923 --> 00:55:48.228
Fair enough.

00:55:49.123 --> 00:55:49.304
Yeah.

00:55:49.304 --> 00:55:54.134
And meanwhile, he is, you know, an owner probably, but not a significant owner.

00:55:54.134 --> 00:55:57.284
And he is got all these investors to answer to and they're all like, Bob,

00:55:57.494 --> 00:55:57.643
yeah.

00:55:57.643 --> 00:55:58.273
What happened?

00:55:58.273 --> 00:55:58.364
What

00:55:58.873 --> 00:55:59.414
the hell happened?

00:55:59.414 --> 00:56:01.963
You promised how much money we were gonna make after this merger.

00:56:01.963 --> 00:56:03.389
And it seems like we're doing the opposite.

00:56:03.389 --> 00:56:04.153
We were the exact opposite.

00:56:04.153 --> 00:56:04.213
Yeah.

00:56:04.213 --> 00:56:05.173
For a while at least.

00:56:05.173 --> 00:56:05.474
Yeah.

00:56:06.164 --> 00:56:11.534
So you kind of got it, got the one side fixed up and that opened up the opportunity to be the CEO in general.

00:56:11.773 --> 00:56:12.014
Yeah.

00:56:12.344 --> 00:56:14.744
This is a pretty smallish firm, right?

00:56:14.744 --> 00:56:16.454
Ultimately, as far as people and,

00:56:16.753 --> 00:56:16.994
yeah.

00:56:17.023 --> 00:56:24.853
I mean, we do, you know, pretty significant business nationwide, but you know, we don't have a plant, we don't have our own truck drivers.

00:56:24.853 --> 00:56:29.054
You don't have drivers and we don't have a farm, anything like that.

00:56:29.054 --> 00:56:34.748
So like we're able to manage the business with like 16 people wild, which is.

00:56:35.759 --> 00:56:38.273
I don't wanna say how big the business is, but it's a, it's a sign.

00:56:38.333 --> 00:56:40.079
So it's like significant like contract delivery

00:56:40.079 --> 00:56:40.949
and stuff too.

00:56:40.949 --> 00:56:48.929
Then like every time you gotta move some product from this place to the next, you're pretty much relying on somebody else to deliver it to that place or whatever.

00:56:48.929 --> 00:56:50.518
But there's all those systems are there.

00:56:50.608 --> 00:56:51.298
All the systems there.

00:56:51.298 --> 00:56:52.318
As long as the math is right.

00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:52.949
Yep.

00:56:53.248 --> 00:56:53.548
Right.

00:56:53.548 --> 00:56:54.119
That's where the,

00:56:54.389 --> 00:56:57.153
and you have really, really smart people, which we do that are like Yeah.

00:56:57.173 --> 00:57:02.068
You know, a great transportation expert that knows every transportation company in the nation.

00:57:02.338 --> 00:57:02.548
Right.

00:57:02.548 --> 00:57:03.449
And Rolodex is,

00:57:03.809 --> 00:57:14.193
and they're like, can we talk about who the team, like key, key roles within, we don't have to talk too much about'em, but like, I wonder what that, like, is there a headquarters leadership team that's, there is kinda a C-suite.

00:57:14.193 --> 00:57:15.208
So we're based in Loveland.

00:57:15.298 --> 00:57:15.539
Okay.

00:57:15.659 --> 00:57:23.099
Um, the leadership team is myself and then I have a head of supply chain.

00:57:23.099 --> 00:57:24.628
Mm-hmm.

00:57:24.630 --> 00:57:24.659
So his job.

00:57:25.063 --> 00:57:33.193
Overseas source, the beef source, the beef source, the sausage manufacturing plants that, so we, we bring the beef in the processing capability, right?

00:57:33.193 --> 00:57:33.403
Yep.

00:57:33.463 --> 00:57:37.934
We bring all the beef in from either the US or overseas.

00:57:38.264 --> 00:57:39.373
We get it all here.

00:57:39.434 --> 00:57:44.744
And then we have four or five different production facilities that make the sausage.

00:57:44.773 --> 00:57:45.344
I like to call'em the

00:57:45.344 --> 00:57:46.679
wiener makers, if that would be okay.

00:57:46.679 --> 00:57:46.688
Yeah.

00:57:46.753 --> 00:57:47.054
Yeah.

00:57:47.204 --> 00:57:47.443
Okay.

00:57:47.699 --> 00:57:49.213
So we have four or five of those Yep.

00:57:49.213 --> 00:57:50.833
That pretty much make product every single week.

00:57:50.833 --> 00:57:51.134
Gotcha.

00:57:51.134 --> 00:57:58.784
And his job is to make sure both of those things are functioning well and if we need more sausage makers,'cause sales are going up, we better go find them kind of thing.

00:57:58.789 --> 00:57:58.878
Correct.

00:57:59.773 --> 00:58:00.344
Correct.

00:58:00.344 --> 00:58:06.824
So he's kind of in charge of everything from sourcing the beef, making the sausage, transportation.

00:58:06.914 --> 00:58:07.333
Mm-hmm.

00:58:07.693 --> 00:58:08.353
All that.

00:58:08.443 --> 00:58:11.744
Uh, on his team, he has some fantastic people.

00:58:11.744 --> 00:58:13.963
So he has like a head of logistics.

00:58:14.083 --> 00:58:14.324
I was gonna

00:58:14.324 --> 00:58:16.153
say logistics type thinkers too.

00:58:16.153 --> 00:58:16.164
Yep.

00:58:16.889 --> 00:58:17.159
Yeah.

00:58:17.219 --> 00:58:22.498
So they make sure that all the products in the right place at the right time, where sauce at the right price, their when.

00:58:22.498 --> 00:58:22.949
Yeah.

00:58:22.954 --> 00:58:22.963
Yeah.

00:58:22.969 --> 00:58:23.458
Interesting.

00:58:23.789 --> 00:58:24.449
Uh, yeah.

00:58:24.449 --> 00:58:30.148
And, and your customers in many cases are like the distribution businesses that deliver to these Krogers and Sprouts supplier?

00:58:30.148 --> 00:58:33.148
No, we're directly to the, to the Kroger's and Sprouts and Okay, gotcha.

00:58:33.148 --> 00:58:35.938
You stock it right there in the shelves and everything, all sauces of shelves.

00:58:35.938 --> 00:58:36.809
But we send it to like

00:58:36.809 --> 00:58:37.978
their distribution centers.

00:58:37.983 --> 00:58:38.123
Yeah.

00:58:38.128 --> 00:58:38.489
Yeah.

00:58:38.489 --> 00:58:38.818
Interesting.

00:58:38.878 --> 00:58:39.148
Okay.

00:58:39.449 --> 00:58:39.599
Yeah.

00:58:39.628 --> 00:58:41.278
So it goes directly to their Yep.

00:58:41.518 --> 00:58:42.119
Their centers.

00:58:42.119 --> 00:58:42.688
And then we've got the

00:58:42.688 --> 00:58:44.398
sausages on the shelves ready to go.

00:58:44.518 --> 00:58:45.478
Yep, exactly.

00:58:45.568 --> 00:58:45.599
Okay.

00:58:45.599 --> 00:58:45.958
All right.

00:58:46.228 --> 00:58:52.648
Uh, you know, one of the, you know, you, one of the key roles actually is like a production planning person.

00:58:52.648 --> 00:58:57.208
Like, so we have this, this woman on our team, she's absolutely fantastic.

00:58:57.298 --> 00:58:57.478
The meat

00:58:57.478 --> 00:58:58.528
whisperer, they call her.

00:58:58.528 --> 00:58:58.768
Yeah.

00:58:58.798 --> 00:59:04.168
She just knows like, all right, I gotta have this meat here at this time, and this leaves here at this time.

00:59:04.829 --> 00:59:12.148
Like, we gotta have this much, you know, when you're bringing product, especially like overseas, like you're thinking a quarter in advance, like,

00:59:12.284 --> 00:59:12.574
yeah,

00:59:12.838 --> 00:59:14.938
we gotta make sure that these animals are processed.

00:59:14.969 --> 00:59:15.389
Yeah.

00:59:15.748 --> 00:59:18.449
Oh, and has it been a mess with tariffs and stuff too, or?

00:59:19.139 --> 00:59:20.938
Well, they opened, they loosened on the beef.

00:59:20.938 --> 00:59:22.048
They loosened on the beef.

00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:22.438
Right.

00:59:22.739 --> 00:59:23.099
It was

00:59:23.579 --> 00:59:25.289
pretty painful for a while.

00:59:25.293 --> 00:59:25.304
Yeah.

00:59:25.304 --> 00:59:25.454
Yeah.

00:59:25.458 --> 00:59:25.679
Yeah.

00:59:25.679 --> 00:59:31.079
On the beef front it didn't really mess up too much from like our supply side.

00:59:31.139 --> 00:59:31.378
Yeah.

00:59:31.858 --> 00:59:35.728
Um, but it did definitely hurt like on the cost side.

00:59:35.849 --> 00:59:36.028
Yeah.

00:59:36.028 --> 00:59:37.559
We're a pretty low margin business.

00:59:37.563 --> 00:59:37.858
Right, right.

00:59:37.858 --> 00:59:38.699
So you can imagine like just

00:59:38.699 --> 00:59:44.969
absorbing a quick 25% increase in your beef costs, uh, makes this can't raise the sausage price fast enough.

00:59:45.179 --> 00:59:45.478
No.

00:59:45.478 --> 00:59:47.458
And, and we're a premium product, like

00:59:47.639 --> 00:59:48.028
Right.

00:59:48.478 --> 00:59:49.528
We're already selling high price.

00:59:49.528 --> 00:59:49.648
We're

00:59:49.648 --> 00:59:52.798
already pretty, like one of the higher prices on the shelves.

00:59:52.858 --> 00:59:52.949
Right.

00:59:52.949 --> 00:59:56.248
So when like that came, you're like, boy, there's not a lot of room Yeah.

00:59:56.278 --> 00:59:57.478
To take much price.

00:59:57.989 --> 00:59:59.039
So we tried to like, so,

00:59:59.043 --> 01:00:00.509
so you were cheering when you heard the news?

01:00:00.869 --> 01:00:01.079
Yeah.

01:00:02.233 --> 01:00:02.443
Yeah.

01:00:02.474 --> 01:00:08.023
'cause it was, we're kind of, when the news came, we were like contemplating like, we're gonna have to take another increase.

01:00:08.023 --> 01:00:09.373
Like there is no more.

01:00:09.403 --> 01:00:09.673
Yeah.

01:00:10.063 --> 01:00:11.909
We've tried to like wait out, we can get more efficient.

01:00:12.268 --> 01:00:12.914
We tried to like Yeah.

01:00:13.304 --> 01:00:16.063
You know, find other places, do what you can.

01:00:16.184 --> 01:00:16.454
Yeah.

01:00:16.454 --> 01:00:21.548
But when the news came, we're like, okay, well thank goodness, like at least that means we don't have to take a price increase right now.

01:00:21.548 --> 01:00:22.153
Right, right.

01:00:22.603 --> 01:00:24.673
And who else on your leadership team, or is that the main,

01:00:24.824 --> 01:00:26.233
so that's on the supply side.

01:00:26.324 --> 01:00:26.443
Yep.

01:00:26.503 --> 01:00:32.293
Um, and then we have like a head of commercial, so he's in charge of sales and marketing.

01:00:32.503 --> 01:00:32.864
Okay.

01:00:33.344 --> 01:00:37.153
Uh, so he has a couple sales people underneath him and they're like

01:00:37.454 --> 01:00:42.284
talking to grocery stores and stuff, or regions, you know, to the, to the head buyers.

01:00:42.313 --> 01:00:42.583
Okay.

01:00:42.583 --> 01:00:43.003
So, yep.

01:00:43.063 --> 01:00:43.574
Oh, gotcha.

01:00:43.574 --> 01:00:44.023
Makes sense.

01:00:44.028 --> 01:00:44.039
Yep.

01:00:45.074 --> 01:00:45.103
Okay.

01:00:45.103 --> 01:00:47.414
So like, I'm just thinking about who you're selling to.

01:00:47.414 --> 01:00:50.623
You're ultimately not, I mean, it's a brand name, but it's not a brand name.

01:00:50.623 --> 01:00:53.804
You're not doing commercials on Fox News or anything like that

01:00:53.923 --> 01:00:54.224
typically.

01:00:54.224 --> 01:00:54.313
No.

01:00:54.313 --> 01:00:56.353
We do little tiny commercials.

01:00:56.623 --> 01:00:56.864
Yeah.

01:00:56.869 --> 01:00:56.989
Yeah.

01:00:57.719 --> 01:00:58.559
But, um,

01:00:58.619 --> 01:01:01.318
mostly it's direct sales to the, to the deciders.

01:01:01.409 --> 01:01:01.648
Yep.

01:01:02.128 --> 01:01:08.219
So we go to the deciders, like actually tomorrow I gotta fly to Cincinnati, to Kroger.

01:01:08.429 --> 01:01:08.668
Gotcha.

01:01:08.668 --> 01:01:08.804
So like

01:01:09.583 --> 01:01:10.978
the Kroger decider is there.

01:01:10.978 --> 01:01:11.128
Yeah.

01:01:11.128 --> 01:01:11.188
The

01:01:11.188 --> 01:01:12.119
Kroger deciders there.

01:01:12.119 --> 01:01:13.018
So we go to them.

01:01:13.048 --> 01:01:13.438
Yep, yep.

01:01:13.438 --> 01:01:14.248
Like makes sense.

01:01:14.398 --> 01:01:21.989
Um, so he kind of leads all sales marketing and then we do, you know, little marketing.

01:01:22.588 --> 01:01:29.579
He's like, obviously there's not the budgets to do a TV ad, but we did a really cool collaboration like this year with Blackstone Griddles.

01:01:29.759 --> 01:01:30.239
Oh, cool.

01:01:30.478 --> 01:01:31.108
That's my favorite.

01:01:31.168 --> 01:01:33.869
I've got a grilled griddle combo that I used for my camping gear.

01:01:33.898 --> 01:01:34.168
Yeah.

01:01:34.588 --> 01:01:36.389
Best, best$200 I ever spent.

01:01:36.628 --> 01:01:37.739
Yeah, they're, they're awesome.

01:01:37.829 --> 01:01:37.889
Yeah.

01:01:37.889 --> 01:01:41.219
Like we ended up buying a couple griddles for like an event.

01:01:41.639 --> 01:01:41.849
Yeah.

01:01:41.849 --> 01:01:45.628
And I talked to one of the people at Blackstone, it's like, Hey, we should look at a collaboration.

01:01:45.628 --> 01:01:46.679
And they made it happen.

01:01:46.798 --> 01:01:47.099
Cool.

01:01:47.579 --> 01:01:53.579
And so, like, you know, we've been doing like some cooking shows on the Blackstone Channel Oh, fun and that kind of stuff with them.

01:01:53.579 --> 01:01:55.679
And that's been like really cool kind of.

01:01:56.278 --> 01:01:56.338
Yeah.

01:01:56.548 --> 01:01:57.478
Things that we can do.

01:01:57.478 --> 01:01:58.438
Low investment.

01:01:58.438 --> 01:01:59.128
Yeah.

01:01:59.128 --> 01:01:59.139
Yeah.

01:01:59.139 --> 01:01:59.364
Those kinds of things.

01:01:59.489 --> 01:01:59.789
Yeah.

01:01:59.789 --> 01:02:01.168
That would like take advantage of.

01:02:01.168 --> 01:02:08.759
They got a, they got a bigger reach, but they also don't have unlimited money, and so if you'll throw in some nice cuts, uh, we could do some collab here.

01:02:08.759 --> 01:02:09.389
This is cool.

01:02:09.389 --> 01:02:09.748
You know?

01:02:09.838 --> 01:02:09.989
Yeah.

01:02:09.989 --> 01:02:11.818
They, and it gives them more credibility as well.

01:02:11.818 --> 01:02:19.199
We got a premium beef cuts company that wants to be part of our, you know, premium beanie weenie, uh, cooking hour here.

01:02:19.378 --> 01:02:19.528
Yeah.

01:02:19.528 --> 01:02:22.318
They're Blackstone's been absolutely awesome.

01:02:22.318 --> 01:02:22.409
Cool.

01:02:22.409 --> 01:02:24.148
So like we do that kind of marketing.

01:02:24.208 --> 01:02:24.358
Yeah.

01:02:24.358 --> 01:02:24.898
That kind of thing.

01:02:24.898 --> 01:02:30.423
So, um, that, that's kind of it from, that's the kind of the main primary portion of the team.

01:02:30.423 --> 01:02:31.858
The, and then there's like a head of finance.

01:02:32.248 --> 01:02:32.489
Yep.

01:02:32.878 --> 01:02:36.268
That's kind of like as I've moved into a leadership role.

01:02:36.268 --> 01:02:36.358
Yeah.

01:02:36.358 --> 01:02:38.309
I brought in a head of finance that helps too much.

01:02:38.309 --> 01:02:39.509
Keep the book straight and

01:02:39.599 --> 01:02:39.958
awesome

01:02:40.108 --> 01:02:41.143
Bills paid, but Yeah.

01:02:41.148 --> 01:02:41.338
Yeah.

01:02:41.338 --> 01:02:42.478
We're pretty lean and mean.

01:02:42.509 --> 01:02:42.929
Yeah.

01:02:42.929 --> 01:02:42.938
Yeah.

01:02:43.018 --> 01:02:47.608
It's an interesting, it's so cool that every business is a different business.

01:02:48.509 --> 01:02:48.809
Right.

01:02:48.809 --> 01:02:58.168
Like, yeah, there's no, I haven't hardly experienced a business like yours in my years as a banker'cause it's just kind of a different place, a different marketplace.

01:02:58.168 --> 01:03:03.568
But here you are in Loveland, Colorado and you know, your team is mostly local too.

01:03:03.568 --> 01:03:04.168
Is that true?

01:03:04.378 --> 01:03:05.099
Mostly, yeah.

01:03:05.159 --> 01:03:05.489
Yeah.

01:03:05.608 --> 01:03:10.259
We still have a couple, we have some people kind of in California and Yeah.

01:03:10.858 --> 01:03:11.199
You know, different places, but, which is pretty

01:03:11.199 --> 01:03:11.938
easy still.

01:03:11.938 --> 01:03:16.889
But also you get that the element of, you know, here you're just one more front range business, putting it together.

01:03:17.159 --> 01:03:17.398
Yep.

01:03:17.429 --> 01:03:17.909
Exactly.

01:03:17.909 --> 01:03:19.768
So, so, hey, I wanna call a short break.

01:03:19.773 --> 01:03:20.063
Okay.

01:03:20.063 --> 01:03:23.789
We'll for a potty break for me and a refresh and, uh, we'll be back here in a few.

01:03:24.481 --> 01:03:28.742
Hi, this is Clint Jasper, managing partner at Purpose-Driven Wealth.

01:03:29.521 --> 01:03:33.811
We believe financial clarity leads to a life of contentment and purpose.

01:03:34.351 --> 01:03:50.702
Our mission is to guide clients through the complexities of wealth management, retirement planning, and legacy, using a values-driven, stewardship based approach, focused on provision, contentment, and enjoyment with more than a century of expertise through thriving.

01:03:51.137 --> 01:03:56.567
We offer tailored strategies to help individuals and families achieve their goals and embrace generosity.

01:03:57.197 --> 01:04:04.186
Whether you're navigating a life or business transition or planning for the future, we are here to partner with you every step of the way.

01:04:04.697 --> 01:04:12.467
To learn more about Purpose-Driven Wealth, call 9 7 0 3 3 0 7 4 1 1.

01:04:13.492 --> 01:04:14.273
And we're back.

01:04:14.362 --> 01:04:14.873
Perfect.

01:04:15.112 --> 01:04:16.373
How was that bathroom break for you?

01:04:17.152 --> 01:04:17.722
Relieving,

01:04:19.402 --> 01:04:22.103
what do you think of my, my, my new podcast producer?

01:04:22.163 --> 01:04:24.353
Uh, Sadie does, she seemed friendly as you came in.

01:04:24.353 --> 01:04:25.313
She does seem friendly.

01:04:25.463 --> 01:04:29.302
She pushed the cookies on you and tried to guilt trip you about not taking'em a little bit.

01:04:29.992 --> 01:04:30.322
Yeah.

01:04:30.773 --> 01:04:33.097
She was, she was pushing the cookies Was gentle though.

01:04:33.097 --> 01:04:33.833
And you're pushing the bourbon.

01:04:33.893 --> 01:04:34.253
Yeah.

01:04:34.313 --> 01:04:35.842
Well, you know, it's, it's

01:04:35.842 --> 01:04:37.163
our policy here.

01:04:37.313 --> 01:04:37.523
Yeah.

01:04:37.523 --> 01:04:38.722
We just want you to be comfortable.

01:04:39.143 --> 01:04:40.043
I appreciate that.

01:04:40.103 --> 01:04:54.983
Um, so what we often do right after the break is, you know, you mentioned kind of growing up in Sali of town and a few chapters, but I want to get a little bit nos you into that, you know, third grade year at in Salida.

01:04:54.983 --> 01:04:56.362
And what was Sali like then?

01:04:56.362 --> 01:05:01.793
Was it the, you know, beers, bikes and babes kind of town that it is today?

01:05:01.818 --> 01:05:01.938
Yeah.

01:05:02.998 --> 01:05:03.952
No, no.

01:05:03.952 --> 01:05:08.813
When I was growing up, like it was very much an agriculture community.

01:05:09.532 --> 01:05:09.802
Like

01:05:11.273 --> 01:05:18.862
is there, like, I know about over by Gunnison and stuff, there's a lot of pasture land and stuff, but there's cattle like south of Salida in those trees and stuff.

01:05:18.862 --> 01:05:19.762
Or where, where do they keep.

01:05:19.958 --> 01:05:20.018
Yeah.

01:05:20.557 --> 01:05:22.657
Well they used to be where all the houses are now.

01:05:22.842 --> 01:05:23.123
Oh, gotcha.

01:05:23.128 --> 01:05:23.318
Gotcha,

01:05:24.728 --> 01:05:25.297
gotcha.

01:05:25.717 --> 01:05:30.427
Um, so like I grew up kind of at the base of Mount Chau we had.

01:05:30.458 --> 01:05:30.788
Okay.

01:05:31.867 --> 01:05:35.137
Uh, it was probably like 600 acres.

01:05:35.228 --> 01:05:35.677
Okay.

01:05:35.677 --> 01:05:36.038
Maybe, yeah.

01:05:36.608 --> 01:05:38.708
What we'd call a section basically in North Dakota.

01:05:38.797 --> 01:05:39.007
Yeah.

01:05:39.007 --> 01:05:40.177
A mile by a mile.

01:05:41.018 --> 01:05:44.947
In all transparency, that's not exactly the most productive ag land.

01:05:44.978 --> 01:05:45.338
Sure.

01:05:45.338 --> 01:05:49.088
Up there it's like mostly rocks and wind and Yeah.

01:05:49.117 --> 01:05:49.418
One

01:05:49.418 --> 01:05:52.148
cow per every, uh, 60 acres.

01:05:52.237 --> 01:06:00.577
It is a little bit better than that, but still not a high grass production place compared to Argentina or parts of the Midwest, even in the US stuff like that.

01:06:00.577 --> 01:06:00.637
Yeah.

01:06:00.643 --> 01:06:00.842
Midwest

01:06:00.842 --> 01:06:07.117
like, so, no, it was very, very ag centric and it was kind of interesting, like that's where, but did your family

01:06:07.117 --> 01:06:08.467
make a living from the ranch or?

01:06:08.467 --> 01:06:08.737
It was,

01:06:09.097 --> 01:06:11.137
uh, my dad had a construction business as well.

01:06:11.137 --> 01:06:11.407
Okay.

01:06:11.588 --> 01:06:12.757
I was gonna say, that doesn't seem like a.

01:06:13.297 --> 01:06:14.797
Could have enough cows to make a,

01:06:14.992 --> 01:06:15.938
make a living from.

01:06:15.967 --> 01:06:16.958
No, that was, that was more of like

01:06:17.648 --> 01:06:18.967
passion project, we'll call it.

01:06:18.998 --> 01:06:19.447
Yeah.

01:06:19.628 --> 01:06:21.518
And at that point, like my dad was older.

01:06:21.757 --> 01:06:22.027
Mm.

01:06:22.088 --> 01:06:23.737
So like Yeah.

01:06:23.737 --> 01:06:25.268
He was more semi-retired.

01:06:25.327 --> 01:06:25.387
Yeah.

01:06:25.387 --> 01:06:26.648
And just like, do what I wanna do.

01:06:26.648 --> 01:06:26.827
Kind of.

01:06:26.827 --> 01:06:30.878
He was working on the ranch, but I'm sure that that was not what paid the bills.

01:06:30.907 --> 01:06:31.478
Right, right.

01:06:31.898 --> 01:06:37.208
It was kind of all of his real, uh, like construction, right.

01:06:37.297 --> 01:06:38.947
Projects, excavation, that kind of stuff.

01:06:38.947 --> 01:06:40.447
Like over the years that had done that.

01:06:41.318 --> 01:06:42.007
But no, it was great.

01:06:42.007 --> 01:06:46.838
Like growing up today, it was not the community that it is today.

01:06:46.838 --> 01:06:51.518
Like, I remember when the first art gallery came to Southern, you're like, what is interesting?

01:06:51.757 --> 01:06:52.148
Okay.

01:06:53.168 --> 01:06:53.467
Right.

01:06:53.527 --> 01:06:54.367
Why do we need art?

01:06:54.458 --> 01:06:54.697
Yeah.

01:06:55.657 --> 01:06:56.827
Well, and a lot of

01:06:56.827 --> 01:06:58.898
what the art is, is not what I, I'm like.

01:06:59.168 --> 01:07:03.608
You say it's not the community it is today, but in some ways it was probably more community like.

01:07:03.788 --> 01:07:04.177
Yes.

01:07:04.327 --> 01:07:06.367
Like everybody had deep roots.

01:07:06.413 --> 01:07:07.777
Very deep roots in the roots region.

01:07:07.777 --> 01:07:15.427
You know, it was ranchers and small business people and Correct little bit of home construction and stuff, but it wasn't a boom town yet.

01:07:15.518 --> 01:07:18.097
So you probably had, there was probably more grade school kids.

01:07:18.577 --> 01:07:21.518
There were, yeah, it was when I was there now it was just rich

01:07:21.518 --> 01:07:24.188
people whose kids have grown up and they don't correct want'em or whatever.

01:07:24.188 --> 01:07:25.927
Or they're just kids with, before they have kids.

01:07:26.318 --> 01:07:26.438
Yeah.

01:07:26.438 --> 01:07:29.318
When I was there, like the average class size was like a hundred kids.

01:07:29.322 --> 01:07:29.543
Mm-hmm.

01:07:29.623 --> 01:07:32.318
And I think it's like down to like in the sixties now

01:07:32.797 --> 01:07:33.998
with double the population.

01:07:34.358 --> 01:07:34.717
Yeah.

01:07:34.987 --> 01:07:36.157
Well just older people.

01:07:36.217 --> 01:07:36.367
Either

01:07:36.367 --> 01:07:38.347
older people or young people that don't have kids yet.

01:07:38.858 --> 01:07:46.478
And one, one thing that was super cool when I was growing up is, um, most of the, or like a really high percentage of the community.

01:07:47.123 --> 01:07:49.552
Was Italian immigrants because Oh really?

01:07:49.552 --> 01:07:52.943
Salida had like a very similar landscape, huh?

01:07:53.483 --> 01:07:55.282
As like parts of northern Italy.

01:07:55.342 --> 01:07:55.793
Is that right?

01:07:55.793 --> 01:07:57.713
So like, tons and tons of people,

01:07:57.742 --> 01:08:00.293
people that came to Denver would find Salida and be like, oh,

01:08:00.293 --> 01:08:01.072
it's like home.

01:08:01.222 --> 01:08:03.443
It's like a home or, or

01:08:03.447 --> 01:08:03.827
something like that.

01:08:03.833 --> 01:08:04.222
Or they would

01:08:04.222 --> 01:08:05.213
like tell their family.

01:08:05.273 --> 01:08:05.588
Oh, interesting.

01:08:05.588 --> 01:08:07.432
So it was like people would just come from Italy.

01:08:07.432 --> 01:08:07.492
Huh.

01:08:08.242 --> 01:08:12.952
And so like, I grew up in like, almost like an entire town that was like this big Italian family.

01:08:12.958 --> 01:08:13.268
Is that right?

01:08:13.268 --> 01:08:14.273
Like, oh, come on over.

01:08:14.273 --> 01:08:15.443
Like, I'm gonna feed you.

01:08:15.443 --> 01:08:15.668
And like

01:08:15.887 --> 01:08:18.082
And your family wasn't one of those families though.

01:08:18.382 --> 01:08:20.627
I do have an Italian last name, so Polaro?

01:08:20.738 --> 01:08:21.268
Yeah, sure.

01:08:21.528 --> 01:08:25.823
It is Italian for, uh, gold Golden ball is what it actually means.

01:08:26.212 --> 01:08:26.393
Bid

01:08:26.393 --> 01:08:27.353
in with those books.

01:08:27.533 --> 01:08:27.863
Yeah.

01:08:27.922 --> 01:08:32.122
Um, but my dad claimed to be more German than Italian.

01:08:32.603 --> 01:08:33.172
Gotcha.

01:08:33.592 --> 01:08:37.193
Um, but like my godparents were pure Italian.

01:08:37.432 --> 01:08:37.882
Interesting.

01:08:37.943 --> 01:08:38.153
Like.

01:08:38.797 --> 01:08:39.127
Huh?

01:08:39.158 --> 01:08:44.257
Just like the most loving, caring people, like rocking kind

01:08:44.257 --> 01:08:46.148
of tragedy of its own.

01:08:46.297 --> 01:08:51.127
Like now Salida is just a melting pot of rich people that made their money here or there everywhere.

01:08:51.188 --> 01:08:51.427
Yeah.

01:08:51.457 --> 01:08:55.087
Mostly in Colorado, probably, but also everywhere.

01:08:55.087 --> 01:09:00.698
But it doesn't, you I would, you would never suspect that Italian connection today.

01:09:00.703 --> 01:09:00.712
Yeah.

01:09:01.238 --> 01:09:01.448
Yeah.

01:09:01.448 --> 01:09:01.627
It was.

01:09:01.627 --> 01:09:03.578
Whereas in your days of growing up, you could recognize that.

01:09:03.582 --> 01:09:03.762
Oh yeah.

01:09:03.762 --> 01:09:06.818
I mean every, every name ended with an A or no.

01:09:06.877 --> 01:09:07.207
Yeah.

01:09:07.207 --> 01:09:11.018
The high school yearbook has got all these, uh, yeah.

01:09:11.137 --> 01:09:13.417
You know, Italian looking names and all that kind stuff.

01:09:13.627 --> 01:09:13.868
Huh.

01:09:13.957 --> 01:09:15.037
I would've never known that.

01:09:15.127 --> 01:09:15.518
Yeah.

01:09:15.578 --> 01:09:17.018
It was, it was interesting.

01:09:17.018 --> 01:09:21.908
'cause like, I mean, the one thing I love about Italian culture is it's just like so welcoming.

01:09:22.057 --> 01:09:22.478
Yeah.

01:09:22.837 --> 01:09:29.828
Like we, I remember like a friend her, her grandma was like this old Italian woman.

01:09:29.828 --> 01:09:29.887
Yeah.

01:09:29.917 --> 01:09:35.587
And they lived like not far from the high school and they, you know, when you had open campus, like it would be.

01:09:36.457 --> 01:09:36.757
Today.

01:09:36.757 --> 01:09:38.648
Like kids will be like, oh, let's go to McDonald's.

01:09:38.648 --> 01:09:42.698
We're all like, yeah, yeah, let's go to Nona Mama, Rosa's Nna, gran's house.

01:09:42.698 --> 01:09:46.868
And she'd have like 30 high schoolers at her house for lunch every day.

01:09:46.868 --> 01:09:47.078
Like,

01:09:48.578 --> 01:09:49.537
that is awesome.

01:09:49.898 --> 01:09:54.608
What are you, what a unique, uh, kind of environment to, to grow up in.

01:09:54.698 --> 01:09:56.078
Yeah, it was awesome.

01:09:56.137 --> 01:09:57.398
Other siblings as well?

01:09:57.488 --> 01:09:57.967
I do.

01:09:58.057 --> 01:10:06.427
So I have a sister who still lives down in that area, so we, we sold off all the land in Sali.

01:10:06.427 --> 01:10:07.207
Which house is there now?

01:10:07.207 --> 01:10:07.448
Yeah.

01:10:07.597 --> 01:10:08.707
Pretty much houses there.

01:10:08.768 --> 01:10:09.037
Yeah.

01:10:09.037 --> 01:10:15.488
Now, um, my sister and I bought a ranch in like the San Luis Valley, which is just over Poncho Pass.

01:10:15.488 --> 01:10:16.568
Sure, yeah, yeah.

01:10:16.568 --> 01:10:21.608
I go down there occasionally by the sand dunes to do some hot springs and then motorcycle touring and stuff like that.

01:10:21.608 --> 01:10:23.078
So do you know where Swatch is?

01:10:23.108 --> 01:10:23.528
Sure.

01:10:23.618 --> 01:10:24.037
Yeah.

01:10:24.247 --> 01:10:29.858
So between my sister and I, we have like, it's like 1600 acres in Swatch.

01:10:30.037 --> 01:10:34.507
You could, uh, get 1600 acres in Swatch for what you sold 600 acres for and have.

01:10:35.063 --> 01:10:36.382
A lot left, uh, yeah.

01:10:36.412 --> 01:10:37.252
To do stuff with.

01:10:37.792 --> 01:10:37.853
Yeah.

01:10:37.853 --> 01:10:38.063
When

01:10:38.063 --> 01:10:39.443
we bought, when we bought the land as a watch, it was

01:10:39.922 --> 01:10:40.792
one than 10.

01:10:40.797 --> 01:10:40.997
Pretty,

01:10:41.182 --> 01:10:42.953
pretty fair, fair price.

01:10:42.953 --> 01:10:43.313
I saw

01:10:43.313 --> 01:10:50.453
the other day actually, there was a, like a put your tiny house or whatever on this property in San Luis.

01:10:50.722 --> 01:10:51.113
Okay.

01:10:51.262 --> 01:10:55.403
Uh, in just outside of the town, like a two and a half miles outside of the town of San Luis.

01:10:55.493 --> 01:10:55.762
Yep.

01:10:55.853 --> 01:11:02.063
And it was just, you know, sage brushes surrounded by sage brushes, but like three acres and it was like 20 grand.

01:11:02.842 --> 01:11:02.903
Yeah.

01:11:02.903 --> 01:11:06.682
That's, you know, with a road to the site and, you know, maybe even electric to the site.

01:11:06.682 --> 01:11:06.743
Wow.

01:11:06.743 --> 01:11:16.733
I can't quite remember, but it, you know, it's so interesting and, and if you're okay with cold nights, it's a pretty amazing climate to live in down there.

01:11:16.792 --> 01:11:17.453
It's pretty, yeah.

01:11:17.693 --> 01:11:18.922
The winters are pretty brutal.

01:11:19.042 --> 01:11:19.613
Yeah.

01:11:19.823 --> 01:11:20.063
Well, it

01:11:20.063 --> 01:11:27.563
gets kind of nice during the day a lot of times when, when it's not blizzarding or whatever, but, you know, get up to 50 in the daytime and then down to 30 below at night or something.

01:11:27.953 --> 01:11:28.132
Yeah.

01:11:28.132 --> 01:11:34.462
I was, like I said, I was down there last week and part of the reason I, I wanted to get the place with my sister was like.

01:11:35.092 --> 01:11:35.932
Elk could go in there.

01:11:36.023 --> 01:11:36.533
Oh yeah.

01:11:36.773 --> 01:11:38.243
So I was like, yeah, you got some nice

01:11:38.243 --> 01:11:39.203
cover down there.

01:11:39.622 --> 01:11:45.563
So I wanted to go elk hunting and was down there and nobody was there when I was down there this week.

01:11:45.592 --> 01:11:45.922
Okay.

01:11:45.922 --> 01:11:52.672
And like I was in the house and it's just like the house is, I don't know, like an 1890s.

01:11:52.672 --> 01:11:53.243
Oh, okay.

01:11:53.302 --> 01:11:54.533
Old farmhouse.

01:11:54.622 --> 01:11:54.832
Sure.

01:11:55.552 --> 01:11:57.412
And like the only heat in there is like a wood.

01:11:57.773 --> 01:11:58.643
The wood stove.

01:11:58.643 --> 01:11:59.063
Right.

01:11:59.063 --> 01:12:01.342
You like trying to get, and the windows are original and so actually

01:12:01.342 --> 01:12:03.592
heating the house up is a job in itself.

01:12:03.682 --> 01:12:03.863
Yeah.

01:12:03.863 --> 01:12:06.472
I was like sitting there, I was like texting my wife.

01:12:06.472 --> 01:12:12.262
I was like, I am freezing, wearing like all your clothes to that, the wood bring stove has

01:12:12.262 --> 01:12:14.092
been like burning for three hours.

01:12:14.092 --> 01:12:14.153
Yeah.

01:12:14.158 --> 01:12:15.412
And I'm still freezing it here.

01:12:15.443 --> 01:12:16.972
Luckily it was like a pellet stove.

01:12:16.972 --> 01:12:18.722
Like it go run by itself all night night.

01:12:18.893 --> 01:12:19.733
Put the dragger on.

01:12:19.733 --> 01:12:20.122
Yeah.

01:12:20.122 --> 01:12:20.182
Yeah.

01:12:20.182 --> 01:12:20.393
Like

01:12:21.797 --> 01:12:23.422
But you were successful, you got an elk.

01:12:23.483 --> 01:12:25.132
Yeah, just, just a cow elk.

01:12:25.132 --> 01:12:26.783
Just for the meat, like whatever.

01:12:26.842 --> 01:12:28.193
I grew up eating wild game.

01:12:28.193 --> 01:12:28.643
I love, yeah.

01:12:28.762 --> 01:12:31.738
I'm, I'm actually loved Wild game Salivating a little bit right now just.

01:12:32.332 --> 01:12:34.162
Thinking about a nice elk steak or whatever.

01:12:34.162 --> 01:12:35.783
So I'm definitely jelly about that.

01:12:36.203 --> 01:12:36.382
Yeah.

01:12:36.382 --> 01:12:39.052
I just, man, I, I mean I love beef.

01:12:39.143 --> 01:12:39.323
Yeah.

01:12:39.592 --> 01:12:40.972
But I love wild game.

01:12:40.972 --> 01:12:43.523
It was, it was pretty funny as a kid just thinking about it.

01:12:43.528 --> 01:12:45.682
It was like we grew up beef farmers mm-hmm.

01:12:46.132 --> 01:12:47.182
And eating wild game.

01:12:47.872 --> 01:12:51.082
And my dad would get so mad if you went to a restaurant ordered chicken.

01:12:51.082 --> 01:12:52.972
He's like, we don't eat chicken in this house.

01:12:53.363 --> 01:12:54.323
We're beef farmers.

01:12:56.752 --> 01:13:11.752
I hate to say it, but for one of the first times in forever, uh, they had at, at Blue Agave, I was down in Denver, went to the Blue Agave restaurant down there and they had a special, that was like a, a there and corn dip thing that I shared with the A two course meal.

01:13:11.903 --> 01:13:12.082
Yep.

01:13:12.172 --> 01:13:16.733
And then an air airline chicken or airplane chicken or whatever they call that with the breast, with the wing attached.

01:13:16.733 --> 01:13:16.792
Yeah.

01:13:16.792 --> 01:13:17.993
And with the skin on there.

01:13:18.592 --> 01:13:19.493
And it was delicious.

01:13:19.493 --> 01:13:19.943
Good job.

01:13:19.943 --> 01:13:20.212
Blue agave.

01:13:20.752 --> 01:13:22.372
You killed it on that entree.

01:13:22.912 --> 01:13:27.382
Um, and I never ordered chicken, but like that's one of the few.

01:13:28.387 --> 01:13:31.747
Preparations of chicken work can actually make me happy.

01:13:31.837 --> 01:13:32.318
Okay.

01:13:32.467 --> 01:13:45.728
But, uh, but yes, my household, my wife, my exchange didn't, they're always like, so we eat beef and pork and assorted sausages and it is like, well, well I have chicken again next week.

01:13:47.618 --> 01:13:51.908
Not really food anyway, to all your chicken partners out there.

01:13:52.297 --> 01:13:55.537
I remember, just remember my dad always be like, what are you doing eating chicken?

01:13:56.618 --> 01:13:57.488
Put that crap down.

01:13:57.547 --> 01:13:57.847
Yeah.

01:13:58.118 --> 01:14:00.518
My, my taste buds and sensibilities are the same.

01:14:00.518 --> 01:14:07.297
I'd rather have a gamey chunk of venison, frankly, than a, than a chicken breast.

01:14:07.297 --> 01:14:08.438
Especially chicken thighs.

01:14:08.438 --> 01:14:09.877
I'm all about, but yeah,

01:14:10.238 --> 01:14:11.377
I'm all about wild meat.

01:14:11.377 --> 01:14:11.618
Like

01:14:11.648 --> 01:14:12.997
how about birds and stuff too?

01:14:12.997 --> 01:14:13.747
Ducks and,

01:14:14.497 --> 01:14:17.828
uh, I didn't grow up eating too much birds.

01:14:17.828 --> 01:14:20.108
Like we had a pond at our house like.

01:14:21.323 --> 01:14:24.712
My mom thought that the ducks and geese were more her pets than wild life.

01:14:24.743 --> 01:14:24.953
Yeah.

01:14:24.953 --> 01:14:27.353
She doesn't want you bringing'em home to eat.

01:14:27.592 --> 01:14:29.903
You could go shoot a deer or an elk all day long.

01:14:29.903 --> 01:14:30.172
Gotcha.

01:14:30.177 --> 01:14:31.972
Like if you shot a duck, you were a dead man.

01:14:34.252 --> 01:14:34.733
Gotcha.

01:14:35.603 --> 01:14:38.872
So it is not as good anyway, honestly, like ducks are okay.

01:14:38.993 --> 01:14:40.853
Pheasants are pretty tasty is pretty good.

01:14:41.092 --> 01:14:41.872
Um, goose?

01:14:41.872 --> 01:14:42.983
I do not like goose.

01:14:43.012 --> 01:14:43.823
No, nobody does.

01:14:43.823 --> 01:14:45.172
Just tastes like eating mud.

01:14:45.172 --> 01:14:47.153
If they tell you like goose, they're lying.

01:14:47.153 --> 01:14:55.042
I think so quite the, the, I guess agricultural background, ranchy environment even continues today.

01:14:55.042 --> 01:14:56.662
You dabble in it a little bit with your sister.

01:14:56.722 --> 01:14:56.932
Yeah.

01:14:56.962 --> 01:15:02.302
And what, does she work in town or something and live on this ranch or do they try to, you try to make money with this ranch somehow?

01:15:02.302 --> 01:15:02.332
Uh,

01:15:03.412 --> 01:15:04.432
so cow, some cow.

01:15:04.432 --> 01:15:07.073
We obviously try to not lose money on the ranch.

01:15:07.073 --> 01:15:07.432
Like, uh, so

01:15:08.453 --> 01:15:10.637
you, you're you raising some cows then on it or what do you do with it?

01:15:10.637 --> 01:15:10.757
Yep.

01:15:10.757 --> 01:15:12.743
So they have about 160 head of cows.

01:15:12.773 --> 01:15:12.953
Oh, okay.

01:15:13.283 --> 01:15:13.762
Um,

01:15:14.302 --> 01:15:16.012
that's more than I would've thought could fit on.

01:15:16.012 --> 01:15:18.653
A ranch of that size is down there 10 per acre?

01:15:19.193 --> 01:15:19.557
No, we have.

01:15:20.542 --> 01:15:23.632
It's pretty, pretty fertile spot.

01:15:23.693 --> 01:15:23.962
Okay.

01:15:23.962 --> 01:15:24.502
Right on.

01:15:24.893 --> 01:15:25.073
Like

01:15:25.073 --> 01:15:26.693
it's coming outta the foothills, kind of up there,

01:15:26.693 --> 01:15:27.893
coming outta the foothills.

01:15:27.922 --> 01:15:28.193
Okay.

01:15:28.222 --> 01:15:30.802
Right on one of the major creeks we have Oh, cool.

01:15:30.802 --> 01:15:31.313
Water rights.

01:15:31.523 --> 01:15:31.672
Nice.

01:15:31.672 --> 01:15:33.023
Which is, that's awesome.

01:15:33.172 --> 01:15:35.783
Probably the water's worth more than the land and all transparency.

01:15:35.783 --> 01:15:36.113
Right.

01:15:37.313 --> 01:15:44.722
Um, so her husband kind of manages all the, the land and the ranch and the cattle and that kind of thing.

01:15:44.722 --> 01:15:46.972
But she has a small CPA business.

01:15:47.063 --> 01:15:47.453
Okay.

01:15:47.872 --> 01:15:51.292
And I think that probably helps pay for more things than

01:15:51.323 --> 01:15:51.832
Yeah.

01:15:51.832 --> 01:15:51.842
Yeah.

01:15:51.893 --> 01:15:54.502
The ranch itself, it's more of a hobby.

01:15:54.533 --> 01:15:54.893
Right.

01:15:55.132 --> 01:15:55.643
For me.

01:15:55.733 --> 01:15:59.542
Well, I mean, 160 cows, that's quite a few cow calf mostly.

01:15:59.693 --> 01:15:59.932
Yeah.

01:16:00.082 --> 01:16:01.893
I'd say it's more of a hobby for me, for them.

01:16:01.967 --> 01:16:02.198
For him.

01:16:02.198 --> 01:16:03.382
Oh, you guys share like herd?

01:16:03.533 --> 01:16:03.893
Yeah.

01:16:03.953 --> 01:16:05.512
For him it's his full-time job.

01:16:05.693 --> 01:16:06.063
Right, right.

01:16:06.323 --> 01:16:10.943
But the ranch itself, like for me it's like, ah, you know, it's their cows, their kind of thing.

01:16:10.943 --> 01:16:11.662
Like Gotcha.

01:16:11.707 --> 01:16:13.582
I, I like to go down and.

01:16:14.018 --> 01:16:17.273
Still be connected, help brand cattle lie, those kinds of things.

01:16:17.273 --> 01:16:17.797
Lie I wanna tell

01:16:17.797 --> 01:16:19.268
the truth when I fill out my gros.

01:16:19.868 --> 01:16:20.167
Exactly.

01:16:20.167 --> 01:16:20.528
Elk permit.

01:16:20.792 --> 01:16:20.832
Exactly.

01:16:20.978 --> 01:16:21.337
I said,

01:16:21.337 --> 01:16:22.988
do you have gratis in Colorado?

01:16:23.497 --> 01:16:23.677
Gros?

01:16:23.677 --> 01:16:23.887
Like if

01:16:23.887 --> 01:16:24.818
you're the landowner.

01:16:25.207 --> 01:16:27.518
So you get, you get landowner permits.

01:16:27.518 --> 01:16:27.547
Okay.

01:16:27.578 --> 01:16:28.957
So that's what I was, yeah.

01:16:29.018 --> 01:16:29.707
I'm a big elk.

01:16:29.707 --> 01:16:29.917
That's what

01:16:29.917 --> 01:16:32.917
you have in North Dakota is you can hunt in your own land if you're a landowner.

01:16:32.917 --> 01:16:33.247
Kind of.

01:16:33.967 --> 01:16:34.448
Yeah.

01:16:34.537 --> 01:16:37.898
But you still gotta get like vouchers from the divisional wildlife.

01:16:37.898 --> 01:16:37.988
Right.

01:16:37.988 --> 01:16:39.217
It's not helping Amy.

01:16:39.217 --> 01:16:40.297
You still have to pay for it,

01:16:40.448 --> 01:16:42.547
but you're automatically guaranteed to get it though, right?

01:16:42.608 --> 01:16:42.667
Yeah.

01:16:42.667 --> 01:16:42.997
Or no.

01:16:43.057 --> 01:16:43.403
Yeah, yeah.

01:16:44.018 --> 01:16:44.137
Yeah.

01:16:44.137 --> 01:16:50.978
That's the way it is in North Dakota too, like and in North Dakota the deer populations are down and so they're barely send selling that many over the counter tickets.

01:16:50.978 --> 01:16:52.448
'cause the landowners all want one.

01:16:52.717 --> 01:16:52.988
Yeah.

01:16:53.047 --> 01:16:54.188
And there's so many landowners.

01:16:54.728 --> 01:16:54.847
Yeah.

01:16:54.847 --> 01:16:55.627
It's kinda the same here.

01:16:55.627 --> 01:16:58.747
I mean like if you put in for a draw, like I'm a big elk hunter.

01:16:58.807 --> 01:16:58.957
Yeah.

01:16:58.957 --> 01:17:00.938
Like I do archery elk every fall.

01:17:01.028 --> 01:17:01.358
Okay.

01:17:01.778 --> 01:17:05.978
And I put in for tags and like I haven't drawn a tag in a couple years.

01:17:06.007 --> 01:17:06.667
Is that right?

01:17:07.087 --> 01:17:10.717
Like I'll still do like over the counter, but it's pretty tough hunting.

01:17:11.108 --> 01:17:11.377
Interesting.

01:17:11.377 --> 01:17:12.217
In the over the counter units.

01:17:12.728 --> 01:17:15.547
Because there's thousands and thousands of people like

01:17:15.547 --> 01:17:16.148
Gotcha.

01:17:16.658 --> 01:17:17.978
So then the backup plans.

01:17:17.978 --> 01:17:19.268
The voucher on the land.

01:17:19.478 --> 01:17:19.898
Yeah.

01:17:20.978 --> 01:17:21.247
Yeah.

01:17:21.337 --> 01:17:22.778
Well you brought one home.

01:17:22.927 --> 01:17:23.377
There you go.

01:17:24.037 --> 01:17:27.728
So, um, and then we kind of picked up your journey as you went off to college.

01:17:27.728 --> 01:17:28.177
Where did you go to?

01:17:28.297 --> 01:17:29.347
Did you go up, come up to Greeley?

01:17:29.347 --> 01:17:30.457
Is that where you went, your wife then?

01:17:30.488 --> 01:17:30.667
Yep.

01:17:30.728 --> 01:17:35.983
So I went, got my undergraduate in Greeley, where I met my wife at UNC, I presume At UNC.

01:17:35.983 --> 01:17:35.993
Yep.

01:17:37.207 --> 01:17:44.948
Um, and then, you know, after Greeley, I went and worked in Nebraska for a few years.

01:17:45.037 --> 01:17:45.217
Sure.

01:17:45.667 --> 01:17:50.467
Came back and worked here for a little bit before I went to Germany.

01:17:50.528 --> 01:17:51.007
Oh, okay.

01:17:51.337 --> 01:17:58.207
With kind of still in the beef industry with a company called, um, Meyer Natural Foods.

01:17:58.268 --> 01:17:58.568
Oh, yeah.

01:17:58.597 --> 01:18:00.818
So it's a company in Loveland as well.

01:18:00.877 --> 01:18:01.203
Yeah, yeah.

01:18:01.387 --> 01:18:02.228
So when we had the beef.

01:18:02.603 --> 01:18:03.712
Processing facility.

01:18:03.712 --> 01:18:05.483
We process cattle for Meyer.

01:18:05.542 --> 01:18:05.662
Oh.

01:18:05.662 --> 01:18:05.903
Interest.

01:18:05.903 --> 01:18:06.533
So then like Gotcha.

01:18:06.533 --> 01:18:07.103
Then I worked here.

01:18:07.103 --> 01:18:08.122
And then how you became

01:18:08.122 --> 01:18:12.622
aware of them kind of, so you've kinda moved through network in many cases too.

01:18:12.653 --> 01:18:12.802
Correct.

01:18:12.802 --> 01:18:16.882
Like people were like, Hey, we need a dorky numbers dude at our place.

01:18:17.393 --> 01:18:20.332
I remember working with Kevin, he was pretty cool for a dorky numbers dude.

01:18:20.483 --> 01:18:20.962
Correct,

01:18:21.052 --> 01:18:21.233
yeah.

01:18:21.233 --> 01:18:21.863
Or something like that.

01:18:21.893 --> 01:18:22.252
Yeah.

01:18:22.792 --> 01:18:27.172
Every job I've ever had was through a connection with the exception of this one.

01:18:27.233 --> 01:18:27.802
Interesting.

01:18:27.832 --> 01:18:30.502
This was the only one where I like cold applied.

01:18:30.622 --> 01:18:30.802
Yeah.

01:18:30.802 --> 01:18:31.132
Yeah.

01:18:31.523 --> 01:18:33.443
But like everything was through somebody.

01:18:33.443 --> 01:18:33.592
That's

01:18:33.592 --> 01:18:43.887
a pretty cool testimony, frankly, on a, on a career path and that people recognize your talent and your agreeableness to work with and stuff like that, and wanted to get you on our team.

01:18:44.677 --> 01:18:46.118
Or they were just drunk maybe.

01:18:46.118 --> 01:18:46.483
I don't know.

01:18:46.648 --> 01:18:50.018
Yeah, they, they needed somebody and they knew you were a pretty easy sell.

01:18:50.108 --> 01:18:50.347
Well, he is.

01:18:50.347 --> 01:18:50.738
Got a poll.

01:18:52.238 --> 01:18:52.627
I doubt

01:18:52.627 --> 01:18:52.778
it.

01:18:53.078 --> 01:18:53.677
I doubt it.

01:18:54.097 --> 01:18:57.368
Um, would you like to engage in our ping pong ball?

01:18:57.368 --> 01:18:58.837
Random question challenge?

01:18:59.047 --> 01:18:59.557
Sure.

01:18:59.618 --> 01:19:01.807
This is an exciting segment of the show.

01:19:03.757 --> 01:19:08.257
Oh, and by the way, before we leave, uh, melody behind, do you have children also with

01:19:08.257 --> 01:19:08.648
I do.

01:19:08.768 --> 01:19:08.948
Yeah.

01:19:08.948 --> 01:19:09.877
Together have two daughters.

01:19:09.938 --> 01:19:10.238
Okay.

01:19:10.747 --> 01:19:12.757
So my oldest is Claire.

01:19:12.877 --> 01:19:13.207
Alright.

01:19:13.207 --> 01:19:13.898
She's 12.

01:19:13.898 --> 01:19:15.427
And my, Claire my youngest is Hannah.

01:19:15.847 --> 01:19:16.268
Hannah?

01:19:16.568 --> 01:19:17.018
Yeah.

01:19:17.078 --> 01:19:17.287
Why?

01:19:17.438 --> 01:19:18.787
What makes it different than Hannah?

01:19:19.207 --> 01:19:20.828
So it's HANA.

01:19:21.462 --> 01:19:21.682
Oh.

01:19:22.868 --> 01:19:23.978
Like Hawaii Hana.

01:19:24.037 --> 01:19:25.358
That's exactly where it came from.

01:19:25.358 --> 01:19:25.578
Oh, cool.

01:19:25.578 --> 01:19:25.722
Okay.

01:19:25.722 --> 01:19:29.257
So we were driving on the road to Hana, which is amazing.

01:19:29.257 --> 01:19:29.828
Hours long.

01:19:30.007 --> 01:19:30.217
Yes.

01:19:30.877 --> 01:19:34.507
And that's where we had come up with like, yeah, maybe we should have a second child.

01:19:34.837 --> 01:19:36.698
Little did we know that the word Hana.

01:19:37.387 --> 01:19:39.307
Is, uh, I wanna say it's

01:19:39.488 --> 01:19:40.057
devil,

01:19:40.417 --> 01:19:41.377
it's Hawaiian.

01:19:41.707 --> 01:19:42.037
Just kidding.

01:19:42.037 --> 01:19:45.097
Yeah, it's Hawaiian for hard work, which is very fitting.

01:19:45.097 --> 01:19:45.427
Like.

01:19:45.818 --> 01:19:48.967
She's an awesome girl, but she's a lot of work.

01:19:50.078 --> 01:19:50.557
Perfect.

01:19:50.557 --> 01:19:52.148
Well, I'll keep you young for a long time.

01:19:52.328 --> 01:19:52.658
Yeah.

01:19:52.807 --> 01:19:54.488
So choose three of these.

01:19:54.667 --> 01:19:55.537
I'll pass it right to you.

01:19:55.537 --> 01:19:56.797
Or you can grab'em right outta there.

01:19:58.238 --> 01:19:59.978
They will tend to bounce out, so be careful.

01:20:01.028 --> 01:20:03.757
This is my questions that are associated with each number.

01:20:03.757 --> 01:20:06.847
So, 16, 16, we'll start with 16.

01:20:07.627 --> 01:20:14.557
How do you define success in your career and or your business might be two different answers there.

01:20:17.648 --> 01:20:18.037
Well, I'm How do you

01:20:18.037 --> 01:20:19.118
define success?

01:20:19.358 --> 01:20:21.097
I'm a very goal oriented guy.

01:20:21.158 --> 01:20:21.457
Okay.

01:20:22.087 --> 01:20:23.557
Uh, so I'd say

01:20:24.217 --> 01:20:25.688
so each week, each month?

01:20:25.688 --> 01:20:26.618
Each quarter.

01:20:26.648 --> 01:20:27.518
Each week, yeah.

01:20:28.238 --> 01:20:29.047
You're breaking it down.

01:20:29.047 --> 01:20:32.677
You know, you, if you say, I think of success in two different ways, like there's.

01:20:33.488 --> 01:20:34.807
Career and family.

01:20:34.868 --> 01:20:35.137
Yeah.

01:20:35.347 --> 01:20:37.148
Or there's career and work and there's family.

01:20:37.148 --> 01:20:42.337
So like making sure that I'm being successful in every box that's there.

01:20:42.337 --> 01:20:48.608
And so I try to make sure I limit the things that will hamper,

01:20:48.637 --> 01:20:49.717
distract me from that.

01:20:49.778 --> 01:20:49.988
Yep.

01:20:50.528 --> 01:20:54.037
Like there's only so much capacity in the world for me.

01:20:54.097 --> 01:20:54.427
Yeah.

01:20:54.637 --> 01:21:02.467
So like, I'm clearly a driven guy in business, but I, my family's number one.

01:21:02.677 --> 01:21:02.738
Yeah.

01:21:02.738 --> 01:21:06.037
So if anything gets in the way of family, then that's not a very successful life.

01:21:06.037 --> 01:21:06.097
Go.

01:21:06.127 --> 01:21:07.252
I think that, take that.

01:21:07.252 --> 01:21:08.137
Um, and so from a,

01:21:08.318 --> 01:21:16.387
you know, from a career standpoint, because I am a finance guy, like I measure by numbers for everything.

01:21:16.837 --> 01:21:17.108
Right.

01:21:17.108 --> 01:21:19.988
Like maybe overly so sometimes.

01:21:19.988 --> 01:21:22.478
So you're like ranking with your interactions with your daughters.

01:21:22.478 --> 01:21:25.148
Like, oh, on a five point scale, how is that?

01:21:26.347 --> 01:21:27.158
No, but just time.

01:21:27.457 --> 01:21:27.877
Time.

01:21:27.997 --> 01:21:28.207
Yeah.

01:21:28.207 --> 01:21:29.167
It's all about time.

01:21:29.528 --> 01:21:31.957
So like, on the family front, it's like making sure, like

01:21:31.988 --> 01:21:32.108
mm-hmm.

01:21:32.182 --> 01:21:32.243
I,

01:21:33.023 --> 01:21:35.122
I have to draw travel a ton for work.

01:21:35.182 --> 01:21:36.773
Like I pretty much travel every week.

01:21:36.802 --> 01:21:37.222
Right.

01:21:37.643 --> 01:21:44.212
But like, can I get, so even though if I'm traveling every week, I'm gone for no more than one night.

01:21:44.483 --> 01:21:44.903
Nice.

01:21:44.903 --> 01:21:45.113
So

01:21:45.113 --> 01:21:45.533
it's like,

01:21:45.592 --> 01:21:45.953
wow.

01:21:46.342 --> 01:21:47.332
You know, those kinds of things.

01:21:47.332 --> 01:21:49.012
So that's on the, the family front.

01:21:49.012 --> 01:21:50.212
Family's always first.

01:21:50.393 --> 01:21:57.592
And then on the business front, we set targets and I try to make sure that we always hit our targets.

01:21:57.712 --> 01:21:58.073
Yeah.

01:21:58.372 --> 01:21:59.632
Will, and how are you doing that?

01:21:59.632 --> 01:22:01.792
Are you a high accountability guy?

01:22:01.792 --> 01:22:08.962
Are you like busting Kevin's balls if he's not meeting with enough new grocery store or buyers and stuff like that?

01:22:08.962 --> 01:22:09.262
Or, uh,

01:22:10.193 --> 01:22:11.182
I'm a realistic guy.

01:22:11.182 --> 01:22:12.382
So high accountability.

01:22:12.387 --> 01:22:12.648
Mm-hmm.

01:22:12.728 --> 01:22:13.703
But realistic, like

01:22:13.792 --> 01:22:14.033
fair,

01:22:14.393 --> 01:22:22.912
like you, like you tell me what you can do and if like all that, like, do you feel confident, right?

01:22:22.912 --> 01:22:23.462
Like, you can do this.

01:22:23.462 --> 01:22:23.813
What do you have to do

01:22:23.813 --> 01:22:24.082
different?

01:22:24.082 --> 01:22:25.792
That's 30% more than you did last year?

01:22:25.792 --> 01:22:25.802
Yep.

01:22:25.802 --> 01:22:26.408
So yeah.

01:22:27.203 --> 01:22:31.313
And then you're like, yeah, I can do that, then I'm gonna hold you to it.

01:22:31.643 --> 01:22:32.033
Fair enough.

01:22:32.033 --> 01:22:41.608
And I remember, like, I was talking to our, we did an offsite and I, I try to lead by example and really, you know, guide the team and we were at an offsite Yeah.

01:22:42.052 --> 01:22:46.882
And I was talking about, you know, uh, our bonus program for the year.

01:22:46.912 --> 01:22:47.243
Okay.

01:22:47.932 --> 01:22:57.472
And, you know, when I pitched it to the board, you know, I was like, we're gonna measure ourselves on profit because we're a super, super low margin business.

01:22:57.653 --> 01:22:57.922
Yep.

01:22:58.707 --> 01:22:59.087
And so,

01:22:59.483 --> 01:23:00.592
and a lot of things have to go Right.

01:23:00.592 --> 01:23:01.853
To get much profit out of it.

01:23:02.002 --> 01:23:02.243
Yep.

01:23:02.453 --> 01:23:07.493
So like, if you're the head of sales, you can go win a ton of business, but if it loses money Right.

01:23:07.613 --> 01:23:08.212
Not probably.

01:23:08.212 --> 01:23:09.353
Well, course you're gonna sell

01:23:09.682 --> 01:23:11.063
meat that we're losing money on.

01:23:11.182 --> 01:23:11.453
Yeah.

01:23:11.752 --> 01:23:14.842
You know, and or not, don't have enough margin on.

01:23:14.993 --> 01:23:15.682
Exactly.

01:23:16.162 --> 01:23:20.153
And I was like, so from a bonus perspective, I, I like to keep things super simple.

01:23:20.153 --> 01:23:23.243
So it's a hundred percent on profit, like you hit the profit goal for the.

01:23:24.037 --> 01:23:24.997
You get paid your bonus.

01:23:25.207 --> 01:23:25.957
Simple as that.

01:23:27.337 --> 01:23:32.497
And somebody was like, what if somebody like completely fails their individual goals?

01:23:32.948 --> 01:23:33.217
Right.

01:23:33.427 --> 01:23:35.467
I was like, then you're fired.

01:23:36.068 --> 01:23:36.787
Plain and simple.

01:23:36.818 --> 01:23:37.148
Right.

01:23:37.448 --> 01:23:38.497
Then they'll be gone next year,

01:23:38.648 --> 01:23:38.978
like

01:23:39.127 --> 01:23:39.457
Yeah.

01:23:40.153 --> 01:23:42.818
And, and people that can't keep up.

01:23:43.118 --> 01:23:46.507
Believe, but I'll just be honest.

01:23:46.507 --> 01:23:49.653
Like if you don't, if you can't do what you promised, you said you did.

01:23:49.722 --> 01:23:50.012
Yeah.

01:23:50.012 --> 01:23:50.132
Yeah.

01:23:50.153 --> 01:23:51.398
You were the one that signed up for it.

01:23:51.457 --> 01:23:51.908
Yeah.

01:23:51.908 --> 01:23:51.917
Yeah.

01:23:52.717 --> 01:23:53.828
Then you probably don't fit.

01:23:54.127 --> 01:24:04.898
I listened to, and I, it's more tied to your, your previous answer, but I, Tucker Carlson was on somebody else's, no, it was actually on the Charlie Kirk podcast.

01:24:05.018 --> 01:24:05.408
Okay.

01:24:05.648 --> 01:24:15.667
Uh, and it was him talking with a Seventh Day Adventist guy at some random church like a while ago about their shared decision to to honor the Sabbath.

01:24:16.358 --> 01:24:16.807
Okay.

01:24:17.108 --> 01:24:19.238
And I don't know if you're familiar with Sabbath.

01:24:19.238 --> 01:24:28.297
I'm in, in Jewish tradition, um, like from Sunset Friday to Sunrise Sunday or something like that.

01:24:28.297 --> 01:24:28.957
They're checked out.

01:24:28.957 --> 01:24:28.988
Okay.

01:24:29.677 --> 01:24:38.257
And they don't work, you know, and, and seventh Day Adventists are probably the most dedicated Christian Sunset, subsect or whatever.

01:24:38.738 --> 01:24:38.768
Okay.

01:24:38.768 --> 01:24:41.887
That they just don't work on Saturdays and they go to church on Saturdays.

01:24:41.887 --> 01:24:50.707
So only the, the, the pastor works or whatever, but, and, and Charlie Kirk wasn't a Saturday guy, he was a Sunday guy, but they were talking about honoring the Sabbath.

01:24:51.037 --> 01:24:51.188
Okay.

01:24:51.188 --> 01:24:59.377
And so, like, Charlie wouldn't pick up his phone to do any work or do anything that was like, work on Sundays, you know, to go to church.

01:24:59.377 --> 01:25:01.478
And then it was basically just for family.

01:25:01.747 --> 01:25:01.988
Yeah.

01:25:01.988 --> 01:25:02.677
Strictly.

01:25:02.948 --> 01:25:06.158
And, and it was an interesting conversation.

01:25:06.158 --> 01:25:11.738
Not as much from the, I guess the, the hard segmenting, but like.

01:25:12.488 --> 01:25:12.847
I forget.

01:25:12.847 --> 01:25:23.768
There was a line that, that one of them shared, Charlie shared that was like when Moses led the, the people that had escaped slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.

01:25:23.768 --> 01:25:25.268
And when they had, they were right there.

01:25:25.268 --> 01:25:29.648
He was like, you're no longer slaves now going be free.

01:25:29.648 --> 01:25:33.908
And there was a lot of people bitching like, Hey, we live better when we were back there being slaves.

01:25:33.908 --> 01:25:39.307
But one of the identifiers is they didn't work every day anymore like they had to when they were slaves.

01:25:39.757 --> 01:25:49.717
And so if you're the kind of guy that works seven days a week and you're working 14 hour days every one of those days, you may or may not know it, but you're a slave to something.

01:25:49.778 --> 01:25:49.988
Oh yeah.

01:25:50.917 --> 01:26:04.847
And if, and just by taking that step of breaking that slavery was kind of the argument of these guys, of whether it's exactly what God wants or not, it actually is an example of you being a free person and showing you're not a slave Exactly.

01:26:04.847 --> 01:26:06.337
To honor this kind of time.

01:26:06.337 --> 01:26:09.368
And so whether that's protecting your family time or.

01:26:10.162 --> 01:26:12.622
Making sure you're gone for no more than one night and things like that.

01:26:12.622 --> 01:26:12.682
Yeah.

01:26:12.682 --> 01:26:14.842
It's all kind of honoring, I think, in some ways

01:26:15.052 --> 01:26:22.882
that actually, I don't know, it's kind of disciplining I, if I should say, but like my dad was a pretty rough, rough guy.

01:26:22.943 --> 01:26:23.273
Okay.

01:26:23.693 --> 01:26:30.143
And he said something that to me as a child that, like a teen, upper teen brother.

01:26:30.143 --> 01:26:30.382
Yeah.

01:26:30.387 --> 01:26:30.398
Yeah.

01:26:30.922 --> 01:26:32.662
That was almost the same thing.

01:26:33.203 --> 01:26:37.012
And he was like, you know that everybody's a prostitute.

01:26:37.432 --> 01:26:37.703
Hmm.

01:26:38.422 --> 01:26:42.172
Everybody will do something that they don't really like.

01:26:42.323 --> 01:26:42.863
Yeah.

01:26:43.313 --> 01:26:47.153
To make some money and to do the things that they need to do in life.

01:26:48.443 --> 01:26:55.372
A good value on your life is can you be less of a prostitute and do more of the things that you want to do?

01:26:55.377 --> 01:26:55.568
Yeah.

01:26:55.568 --> 01:26:58.162
And things you want that inspire you.

01:26:58.403 --> 01:26:58.762
Yeah,

01:26:59.127 --> 01:26:59.488
I like that.

01:26:59.493 --> 01:27:04.493
And then you kind of move forward and so that's always, it was a similar concept.

01:27:04.497 --> 01:27:04.728
Yeah.

01:27:04.733 --> 01:27:04.943
Yeah.

01:27:05.002 --> 01:27:08.092
Do the things you choose, not what you feel like you.

01:27:09.203 --> 01:27:12.863
Have to have to do to, to get by or to get, make more money or whatever.

01:27:12.863 --> 01:27:13.103
Exactly.

01:27:13.733 --> 01:27:19.493
And that's like, you know, part of the reason like I love being in the grass fed beef space.

01:27:19.497 --> 01:27:19.597
Yeah.

01:27:19.757 --> 01:27:20.877
'cause it's something I believe in.

01:27:20.877 --> 01:27:21.118
Yeah.

01:27:21.122 --> 01:27:21.233
Yeah.

01:27:21.233 --> 01:27:22.042
And it inspires me.

01:27:22.042 --> 01:27:22.672
So like Yeah.

01:27:23.063 --> 01:27:23.182
Yeah.

01:27:23.182 --> 01:27:23.917
You know, when I was in, it's not really work

01:27:24.143 --> 01:27:25.132
when I'm working even.

01:27:25.137 --> 01:27:25.158
Yeah.

01:27:25.672 --> 01:27:25.972
Yeah.

01:27:25.972 --> 01:27:33.172
Like when I was in plant-based meat, like there was lots of days where I was just like, I'm not inspired Yes.

01:27:33.172 --> 01:27:33.773
To come in.

01:27:33.832 --> 01:27:34.132
Yeah.

01:27:34.222 --> 01:27:41.962
And so it was just as you said, plant thing about being a slave plant plant, it reminded me of the comment like, it's in intriguing everybody's prostitute.

01:27:42.052 --> 01:27:42.412
Yeah.

01:27:43.613 --> 01:27:44.603
Can you be less of one?

01:27:44.693 --> 01:27:45.082
Yeah.

01:27:45.292 --> 01:27:48.292
Well and if you can show up and do work that you believe in, that's a nice start.

01:27:48.443 --> 01:27:48.712
Yeah.

01:27:48.773 --> 01:27:53.993
And I suspect that a big part of your team is there for that reason too.

01:27:54.172 --> 01:27:54.712
Correct.

01:27:54.743 --> 01:27:58.643
You know, they're not there because they were the best logistics person or number cruncher.

01:27:58.643 --> 01:27:58.912
It was.

01:27:58.912 --> 01:28:01.853
'cause they were really good at that and they cared about what you're up to.

01:28:01.858 --> 01:28:02.037
Yeah.

01:28:03.203 --> 01:28:03.382
Yeah.

01:28:03.382 --> 01:28:07.972
I think finding a, like we, we have an awesome team.

01:28:08.783 --> 01:28:11.662
And that's why like, and I'm super, super transparent guy.

01:28:11.662 --> 01:28:12.143
Like Yeah.

01:28:12.292 --> 01:28:15.983
Hence my comment was like, well if you don't do your job then you're probably not gonna be here.

01:28:15.983 --> 01:28:16.462
Because like

01:28:16.462 --> 01:28:18.863
Well and high performers like that kind of culture.

01:28:18.863 --> 01:28:19.372
Correct.

01:28:20.153 --> 01:28:20.273
You know,

01:28:20.427 --> 01:28:23.632
like we had, we had a head of sales years ago.

01:28:23.722 --> 01:28:25.582
That just wasn't a great fit.

01:28:26.122 --> 01:28:26.363
Yeah.

01:28:26.512 --> 01:28:36.382
And I tried to like, figure it out and everything and as soon as, you know, we made the decision like, okay, we gotta change, we gotta make this person.

01:28:36.563 --> 01:28:36.802
Yeah.

01:28:37.132 --> 01:28:38.542
And everyone's like, thank you.

01:28:38.722 --> 01:28:40.703
What was taking you so long?

01:28:41.573 --> 01:28:47.483
Like, and then you're like, okay, we need to develop a culture where if you guys are feeling that, you should tell me.

01:28:47.542 --> 01:28:47.783
Yeah.

01:28:47.903 --> 01:28:48.953
Because I don't always know.

01:28:48.953 --> 01:28:49.103
Tell me.

01:28:49.162 --> 01:28:49.762
Exactly.

01:28:49.762 --> 01:28:50.092
Yeah.

01:28:50.752 --> 01:28:53.092
So, um, we better hit the next question.

01:28:53.182 --> 01:28:53.332
Alright.

01:28:53.332 --> 01:28:53.993
24.

01:28:53.993 --> 01:28:54.682
24.

01:28:57.052 --> 01:28:59.483
What's the most durable business relationship you've had?

01:29:03.618 --> 01:29:07.073
Any of the old folks that corded you away still on the, on the radar.

01:29:08.302 --> 01:29:25.613
I'd say so there was a guy that was my mentor, um, when I was in college, there was a guy, he was the, uh, he was kind of like a head of strategy for Swift Company.

01:29:25.703 --> 01:29:25.792
Okay.

01:29:25.792 --> 01:29:26.573
The beef company.

01:29:26.632 --> 01:29:26.842
Sure.

01:29:27.682 --> 01:29:31.912
And he had helped work to have like JBS acquire Swift.

01:29:31.972 --> 01:29:32.393
Okay.

01:29:32.932 --> 01:29:39.563
And so JBS had acquired Swift and then let him go because obviously they don't need that type of role anymore.

01:29:39.563 --> 01:29:39.832
Yeah.

01:29:40.582 --> 01:29:44.092
And so he took one year to be a college professor.

01:29:44.273 --> 01:29:44.542
Oh, cool.

01:29:44.542 --> 01:29:45.082
Between Joss?

01:29:45.172 --> 01:29:45.592
Yeah.

01:29:45.592 --> 01:29:45.653
Yeah.

01:29:46.132 --> 01:29:48.533
And then, and he was like your best professor

01:29:48.533 --> 01:29:48.832
ever.

01:29:48.922 --> 01:29:52.552
Like he was, I remember when I first met him, I was like, I hated him.

01:29:52.613 --> 01:29:53.092
Oh, really?

01:29:53.212 --> 01:29:54.953
Like, I was like, can you look at this?

01:29:54.953 --> 01:29:56.512
He's like, it's not formatted.

01:29:56.512 --> 01:29:56.842
Right.

01:29:56.872 --> 01:29:57.472
Take it back.

01:29:57.472 --> 01:29:59.063
And I was just like, ah, this guy's a jerk.

01:30:00.262 --> 01:30:03.292
But like, ended up like learning so much from the guy.

01:30:03.353 --> 01:30:03.653
Yeah.

01:30:04.222 --> 01:30:05.393
And he was the one that called me.

01:30:05.483 --> 01:30:07.193
He's like, Hey, I got this job in Nebraska.

01:30:07.972 --> 01:30:08.332
Gotcha.

01:30:08.422 --> 01:30:10.313
So went over and worked for him.

01:30:10.403 --> 01:30:10.703
And then he was

01:30:10.972 --> 01:30:12.832
your lever in the industry in some respects?

01:30:12.832 --> 01:30:13.103
Yeah.

01:30:13.493 --> 01:30:15.412
And then he was the one that's like called me.

01:30:15.412 --> 01:30:17.212
He is like, I'm living in the uk.

01:30:17.212 --> 01:30:18.712
Do you want to come live in Germany?

01:30:18.743 --> 01:30:18.893
Oh really?

01:30:18.893 --> 01:30:19.132
Okay.

01:30:19.853 --> 01:30:22.162
And like taught me so much.

01:30:22.162 --> 01:30:22.252
Cool.

01:30:22.372 --> 01:30:31.613
And like he still, the guy, like I talked to you probably like every couple weeks of like, I got this like, yeah.

01:30:31.613 --> 01:30:32.722
Crazy challenge.

01:30:32.722 --> 01:30:35.752
And he's, you know, a food executive, like

01:30:35.847 --> 01:30:38.153
yeah, he, you wanna shot him up by name?

01:30:38.153 --> 01:30:38.632
Is that allowed?

01:30:38.903 --> 01:30:39.172
Yeah.

01:30:39.203 --> 01:30:39.382
Yeah.

01:30:39.382 --> 01:30:40.613
His name's Scott WiDi.

01:30:41.688 --> 01:30:41.978
WiDi.

01:30:42.368 --> 01:30:42.658
WiDi.

01:30:43.127 --> 01:30:43.417
Wich.

01:30:43.882 --> 01:30:44.063
Yeah.

01:30:44.063 --> 01:30:44.153
It's

01:30:44.153 --> 01:30:44.993
not Italian is it?

01:30:45.717 --> 01:30:47.382
No, I don't.

01:30:47.382 --> 01:30:50.453
He like Dutch or German or something funny.

01:30:50.457 --> 01:30:50.898
I don't, I don't remember.

01:30:50.903 --> 01:30:51.262
I don't know.

01:30:51.262 --> 01:30:53.422
It's a very unique last name.

01:30:53.542 --> 01:30:55.073
Well, hey Scott, I hope you listen to this

01:30:56.302 --> 01:30:57.323
Great, great man.

01:30:57.382 --> 01:30:58.103
Shout out to you.

01:30:58.222 --> 01:30:58.552
Yeah,

01:30:59.092 --> 01:31:02.738
I always talk to him and you know, just kind of bounce some ideas off of and love that.

01:31:02.738 --> 01:31:02.757
And that.

01:31:03.712 --> 01:31:04.613
That relationship.

01:31:04.613 --> 01:31:05.393
Like who knew

01:31:05.422 --> 01:31:06.382
he's a mentor, right?

01:31:06.382 --> 01:31:07.523
Like ultimately, yeah.

01:31:08.063 --> 01:31:08.363
Still.

01:31:08.422 --> 01:31:08.483
Yeah,

01:31:08.632 --> 01:31:09.113
still.

01:31:09.592 --> 01:31:09.953
That's cool.

01:31:10.372 --> 01:31:11.153
Last number is,

01:31:11.243 --> 01:31:13.132
last number is three.

01:31:16.672 --> 01:31:19.372
Eh, this has all been this, this question.

01:31:19.372 --> 01:31:21.863
I'm not gonna ask this question'cause we've already talked about it.

01:31:21.863 --> 01:31:22.523
So gimme your,

01:31:22.613 --> 01:31:23.932
your most random one on the sheet.

01:31:23.932 --> 01:31:24.143
How do

01:31:24.143 --> 01:31:30.592
you approach work life balance is this one, but the very next one is, what would you estimate your burp to fart ratio to be?

01:31:32.693 --> 01:31:33.262
Uh, ratio?

01:31:33.262 --> 01:31:34.103
No, not numbers.

01:31:34.162 --> 01:31:35.033
We just want ratios.

01:31:35.033 --> 01:31:35.182
Ratio.

01:31:35.453 --> 01:31:35.662
Yeah.

01:31:35.662 --> 01:31:36.832
Burp to fart ratio.

01:31:38.092 --> 01:31:43.132
Uh, I'd say two to one burp.

01:31:43.493 --> 01:31:44.153
Two to one burp.

01:31:44.153 --> 01:31:44.752
Okay.

01:31:44.752 --> 01:31:44.762
Yeah.

01:31:44.813 --> 01:31:45.863
And has that changed?

01:31:45.863 --> 01:31:48.743
Uh, you mentioned that you quit drinking alcohol like five years ago.

01:31:48.743 --> 01:31:50.542
Your diet's changed a lot and stuff.

01:31:50.542 --> 01:31:50.993
Were you,

01:31:51.203 --> 01:31:51.622
yeah.

01:31:51.893 --> 01:31:55.042
Were you more of a farter and less of a burer before?

01:31:55.552 --> 01:31:56.993
I think I was, um,

01:31:57.082 --> 01:31:59.662
I know I'm, I'm probably a two farts to one burp kind of guy.

01:31:59.662 --> 01:31:59.903
Probably.

01:31:59.908 --> 01:31:59.978
I

01:31:59.978 --> 01:32:02.573
drink lots of club soda, so that gives me lots Burp adds a lot of burps.

01:32:02.573 --> 01:32:02.842
Yep.

01:32:02.842 --> 01:32:03.203
Fair.

01:32:03.353 --> 01:32:08.002
And then, and if the gear's working right, you shouldn't be farting too big or too stinky anyway.

01:32:08.002 --> 01:32:08.393
Right.

01:32:08.662 --> 01:32:09.863
Except for like, unless you're a cow.

01:32:10.432 --> 01:32:17.243
Unless like, I notice like, like we didn't get an elk last year and I, we ate the elk for the first time night.

01:32:17.813 --> 01:32:18.262
Oh really?

01:32:18.262 --> 01:32:18.653
It like

01:32:18.653 --> 01:32:20.122
sprouted some extra gases.

01:32:20.122 --> 01:32:20.363
Yeah.

01:32:20.363 --> 01:32:24.622
I always, but I also like, I'm a big fan of eating like head to tail.

01:32:25.403 --> 01:32:27.863
So like the first night, like my wife and kids won't do it.

01:32:27.863 --> 01:32:30.353
So like I made them milk steak and I ate the heart.

01:32:30.592 --> 01:32:31.342
Yeah, baby.

01:32:31.342 --> 01:32:31.972
That's what I was

01:32:31.972 --> 01:32:33.023
hoping you were gonna say.

01:32:33.292 --> 01:32:35.363
And like, I definitely was like,

01:32:35.573 --> 01:32:37.162
yeah, that's a different kind of protein.

01:32:37.523 --> 01:32:37.703
Yeah.

01:32:37.703 --> 01:32:38.603
Do you eat the liver too?

01:32:39.563 --> 01:32:40.283
I do.

01:32:40.972 --> 01:32:42.618
Like, I actually an, I buy a beef

01:32:42.622 --> 01:32:43.283
liver sometimes.

01:32:43.283 --> 01:32:43.462
Yeah.

01:32:43.462 --> 01:32:43.703
I'm sure.

01:32:43.703 --> 01:32:44.182
It's huge.

01:32:44.212 --> 01:32:45.023
It's huge.

01:32:45.233 --> 01:32:47.122
And I don't love liver.

01:32:47.273 --> 01:32:51.953
Like I'll choke it down, but like, you know, an oak liver's pretty big.

01:32:51.983 --> 01:32:52.132
Yeah.

01:32:52.132 --> 01:32:54.682
And I probably kept maybe a third of it.

01:32:54.688 --> 01:32:54.818
Okay.

01:32:54.818 --> 01:32:57.377
Like when it was kind of getting into the, like you manier piece.

01:32:57.537 --> 01:32:58.898
I like, I'm good.

01:32:59.127 --> 01:33:02.632
Like there's only so much oak liver I can choke down or any liver.

01:33:02.632 --> 01:33:05.662
I, I just don't like liver, but I'll eat it for health benefits.

01:33:05.662 --> 01:33:06.052
Yeah.

01:33:06.052 --> 01:33:06.063
Yeah.

01:33:06.712 --> 01:33:07.073
I dig it.

01:33:07.493 --> 01:33:11.632
Um, I think it's time for the loco experience, our namesake segment.

01:33:12.113 --> 01:33:12.563
All right.

01:33:12.712 --> 01:33:17.393
Uh, what's the craziest experience that you're willing to share from your lifetime?

01:34:00.877 --> 01:34:02.438
Craziest experience?

01:34:02.438 --> 01:34:02.738
Yeah.

01:34:03.637 --> 01:34:04.087
Hmm.

01:34:04.387 --> 01:34:07.568
Could be, you know, I don't know what it is.

01:34:07.778 --> 01:34:11.618
Uh, you see, I'll really, I'll give you a life changing experience.

01:34:11.618 --> 01:34:11.903
I want that.

01:34:11.903 --> 01:34:12.063
Okay.

01:34:12.068 --> 01:34:12.578
That sounds good.

01:34:12.578 --> 01:34:12.637
Yeah.

01:34:12.908 --> 01:34:13.238
So when

01:34:13.238 --> 01:34:15.818
I was in high school, I was a pretty terrible student.

01:34:15.877 --> 01:34:16.268
Really?

01:34:16.507 --> 01:34:16.747
Yeah.

01:34:16.747 --> 01:34:17.438
I was like, that's surprising

01:34:17.438 --> 01:34:17.738
to me.

01:34:18.398 --> 01:34:21.877
Were you rebelling against your dad being kind of a jerk or something, or?

01:34:21.877 --> 01:34:22.118
No.

01:34:22.988 --> 01:34:24.097
I didn't care about school.

01:34:24.158 --> 01:34:24.398
Yeah.

01:34:24.457 --> 01:34:24.908
Like

01:34:25.568 --> 01:34:26.018
And so you didn't have

01:34:26.018 --> 01:34:28.148
dyslexia, didn't just didn't care.

01:34:28.207 --> 01:34:28.988
I just didn't care.

01:34:29.047 --> 01:34:29.318
Yeah.

01:34:30.247 --> 01:34:32.738
Uh, and I was super into cars still.

01:34:32.768 --> 01:34:33.667
I still like cars.

01:34:33.908 --> 01:34:34.328
Interesting.

01:34:34.358 --> 01:34:34.387
Okay.

01:34:34.387 --> 01:34:35.887
Unfortunately it's bad.

01:34:36.127 --> 01:34:36.847
It's a bad hobby.

01:34:36.908 --> 01:34:37.238
What do you mean?

01:34:37.417 --> 01:34:40.927
Yeah, just gotta build a nice enough business that you can afford it.

01:34:42.153 --> 01:34:45.247
I've kind of decided it's, it's a drug you I wanna get off of.

01:34:46.568 --> 01:34:46.807
Fair.

01:34:46.807 --> 01:34:46.818
Fair.

01:34:47.257 --> 01:34:55.417
But I was super into car, so like I want to, like in high school I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna do, I'm gonna be a mechanic'cause that's what I enjoy doing.

01:34:55.448 --> 01:34:55.747
Oh, okay.

01:34:57.097 --> 01:35:02.228
And so, like between junior and senior year I was working at this auto, uh, tire shop.

01:35:02.408 --> 01:35:02.738
Gotcha.

01:35:02.738 --> 01:35:06.997
My senior year, I think I had like three or four hours of auto shop in my schedule.

01:35:07.238 --> 01:35:07.778
Okay.

01:35:08.707 --> 01:35:09.637
I was like, yeah, whatever.

01:35:09.637 --> 01:35:18.007
Like, and when I was working at the tire shop, this dentist came in and he was a semi-professional drag racer.

01:35:18.127 --> 01:35:18.847
Oh, interesting.

01:35:19.448 --> 01:35:21.967
And so, so we spent$50,000 a year.

01:35:22.672 --> 01:35:23.573
Drag racing or

01:35:23.573 --> 01:35:23.903
more.

01:35:23.903 --> 01:35:25.853
I mean, this guy had unbelievable things.

01:35:25.853 --> 01:35:26.332
Well, when you say

01:35:26.332 --> 01:35:31.222
semi-professional means I get enough sponsorships to cover one third of my drag racing costs.

01:35:31.462 --> 01:35:32.813
I don't think he even got that much.

01:35:32.813 --> 01:35:35.033
He just, he blew some money on Right.

01:35:35.033 --> 01:35:35.842
Some cars.

01:35:35.872 --> 01:35:35.962
Right.

01:35:36.023 --> 01:35:38.063
Thankfully he was a good dentist and had enough extra.

01:35:38.153 --> 01:35:38.903
Exactly.

01:35:39.292 --> 01:35:39.563
Okay.

01:35:39.712 --> 01:35:48.893
And like he always came in, like he had drag racing pikes and like he had built this new Corvette, like bought a brand new Corvette and then just gutted

01:35:48.893 --> 01:35:48.983
it.

01:35:49.042 --> 01:35:49.552
Oh my.

01:35:50.207 --> 01:35:52.073
And and this is like a salido dentist.

01:35:52.132 --> 01:35:52.313
Yeah.

01:35:52.313 --> 01:35:53.627
This was like a sali dentist.

01:35:53.698 --> 01:35:53.988
Dang.

01:35:53.988 --> 01:35:54.268
Yeah.

01:35:54.268 --> 01:35:54.507
Okay.

01:35:54.712 --> 01:36:00.353
And he like gutted this, like, bought a brand new and like tubbed it out and switched the motors and everything.

01:36:00.353 --> 01:36:00.653
Right.

01:36:00.653 --> 01:36:03.443
And it, it was like 1600 horsepower.

01:36:04.042 --> 01:36:04.132
Damn.

01:36:04.823 --> 01:36:07.222
And so we put these big old slicks on the back.

01:36:07.342 --> 01:36:07.523
Yeah.

01:36:07.523 --> 01:36:08.903
And he is like, you want to go for a ride?

01:36:09.082 --> 01:36:10.972
And I was like, yeah, I do.

01:36:11.752 --> 01:36:14.932
And so we like just went out to the highway where there's this one stretch.

01:36:15.802 --> 01:36:20.332
Penny hits and we go from like zero to 180 like that.

01:36:20.332 --> 01:36:20.632
Wow.

01:36:22.132 --> 01:36:22.703
And where is

01:36:22.703 --> 01:36:23.122
this at?

01:36:23.122 --> 01:36:26.002
Like, I've been around s slide, I've been on the back road at Gunnison and stuff.

01:36:26.002 --> 01:36:26.243
Like,

01:36:26.243 --> 01:36:32.903
like, you know, when you're going towards Canyon City, like right outside of town, there was like a big O Tire, something

01:36:32.903 --> 01:36:33.743
on, on Highway 50.

01:36:33.743 --> 01:36:33.863
Yeah,

01:36:34.613 --> 01:36:36.097
this was like middle of the day.

01:36:37.372 --> 01:36:37.853
Okay.

01:36:38.453 --> 01:36:44.063
So we go at like, he hits it and like, I, I just remember almost like being in shock.

01:36:44.122 --> 01:36:44.842
Yes.

01:36:45.382 --> 01:36:49.103
And, and he's like, can I curse her now?

01:36:49.372 --> 01:36:49.703
Yeah.

01:36:49.792 --> 01:36:50.063
Oh yeah.

01:36:50.063 --> 01:36:50.512
Fuck it.

01:36:50.903 --> 01:36:51.233
Alright.

01:36:51.472 --> 01:36:54.233
So we, we get back and he's like, so what'd you think?

01:36:54.233 --> 01:37:00.502
He's like, I was like, fuck, working on other people's cars, I need to make some money.

01:37:00.653 --> 01:37:01.103
Right.

01:37:01.342 --> 01:37:02.122
And he's like, what?

01:37:02.122 --> 01:37:05.273
And I was like, I gotta, I gotta turn my shit around.

01:37:06.533 --> 01:37:07.823
And he's like, what do you mean?

01:37:08.662 --> 01:37:09.052
I was like.

01:37:09.743 --> 01:37:12.743
I'll never be able to afford anything like this, ever

01:37:12.922 --> 01:37:13.912
if I work on him.

01:37:14.063 --> 01:37:14.573
Yeah.

01:37:14.813 --> 01:37:17.212
And he's like, that's so crazy that that was your epiphany.

01:37:17.332 --> 01:37:18.172
That was my epiphany.

01:37:18.172 --> 01:37:20.212
You were like, I want this, I want this.

01:37:20.243 --> 01:37:21.533
What you need is a Tesla model.

01:37:21.533 --> 01:37:22.222
S plaid.

01:37:22.733 --> 01:37:23.122
There you go.

01:37:23.122 --> 01:37:24.922
Because those babies are like ridiculous.

01:37:24.922 --> 01:37:27.113
Zero to 103 seconds or something.

01:37:27.893 --> 01:37:33.533
And like I got done with that and I remember like I was the star auto shop student.

01:37:33.533 --> 01:37:34.823
I was like, I'm dropping it all.

01:37:35.153 --> 01:37:37.252
I need like this class, this class finance.

01:37:37.252 --> 01:37:37.342
I'm

01:37:37.342 --> 01:37:38.707
going into business, I'm gonna college.

01:37:38.818 --> 01:37:39.172
Well I was

01:37:39.172 --> 01:37:40.762
originally like, maybe I'll be a dentist.

01:37:40.762 --> 01:37:42.023
I don't know what I'm gonna do.

01:37:42.113 --> 01:37:42.233
Right.

01:37:42.233 --> 01:37:43.042
Interesting.

01:37:43.313 --> 01:37:47.962
And like really like most people, like their senior year of high school is like the sliding one.

01:37:47.962 --> 01:37:48.443
Right.

01:37:48.443 --> 01:37:49.073
And I was like,

01:37:49.073 --> 01:37:50.212
you were like a whole new pivot.

01:37:50.332 --> 01:37:53.632
I had to do everything just to get into UNC and Greeley.

01:37:53.632 --> 01:37:54.802
Like what does it take?

01:37:54.802 --> 01:37:54.893
And

01:37:54.893 --> 01:37:59.092
not for the money, but just'cause you would need a bunch of money to have a really fast car like that.

01:37:59.547 --> 01:38:06.412
I just, I had that epiphany like, I'm never going to have all like the things I want.

01:38:07.087 --> 01:38:08.557
Just by working on cars

01:38:08.858 --> 01:38:13.927
and, but do you still want a really fast car like that, or has having two little kids or two?

01:38:14.438 --> 01:38:16.627
No, I don't really have the, the desire for the fast car.

01:38:16.627 --> 01:38:16.747
Right.

01:38:16.747 --> 01:38:19.898
I didn't, well, I said like the drug, the terrible drug.

01:38:19.898 --> 01:38:23.677
I did make the decision, like over COVID where everybody bought something stupid.

01:38:23.707 --> 01:38:24.037
Yeah.

01:38:24.608 --> 01:38:27.188
I bought a first generation Ford Bronco.

01:38:27.488 --> 01:38:27.967
Okay.

01:38:28.448 --> 01:38:30.097
And like, yeah,

01:38:30.427 --> 01:38:32.707
restoring old Broncos is a pretty bad drug.

01:38:32.917 --> 01:38:33.127
Yeah.

01:38:33.127 --> 01:38:33.847
It was terrible.

01:38:35.132 --> 01:38:42.217
Like, I spent more, more freaking money on that car and it's still like, still not working, still not running.

01:38:43.478 --> 01:38:48.457
And I'm like, my wife, every day I am like, I'm gonna sell as soon as I'm done, I'm selling this thing.

01:38:48.457 --> 01:38:51.967
And she's like, I think you should keep it as a, as a reminder.

01:38:52.057 --> 01:38:53.167
There is no done.

01:38:53.318 --> 01:38:54.007
Yeah.

01:38:54.007 --> 01:38:54.097
And

01:38:54.847 --> 01:38:55.868
I was like, never again.

01:38:55.868 --> 01:38:57.398
I'm never restoring another one.

01:38:57.427 --> 01:38:57.847
Yeah.

01:38:57.847 --> 01:39:01.358
It's a, it's a tough, uh, that industry.

01:39:02.332 --> 01:39:08.453
Like rich people pay, like places like Pinky's Rod shop and, and Wally's speed shop and stuff.

01:39:08.483 --> 01:39:09.292
Insane amounts.

01:39:09.323 --> 01:39:10.132
Insane amounts.

01:39:10.132 --> 01:39:11.993
Like literally like a quarter million dollars.

01:39:11.993 --> 01:39:12.382
Yeah.

01:39:12.832 --> 01:39:18.983
On the car that they sourced for 50 grand and then they, you know, so they got 300 grand into this thing.

01:39:18.983 --> 01:39:25.252
They take it, win a couple trophies, maybe if they're lucky, and then if they decide they wanna sell it, it's worth 104.

01:39:25.342 --> 01:39:25.672
Yeah.

01:39:25.853 --> 01:39:26.063
Yeah.

01:39:26.063 --> 01:39:26.393
That's,

01:39:26.903 --> 01:39:28.582
you know, they got 350 grand

01:39:29.243 --> 01:39:29.962
or something.

01:39:31.528 --> 01:39:32.097
Yeah, I know.

01:39:32.302 --> 01:39:38.332
And nobody, and the reason is, is'cause I don't wanna buy your custom.

01:39:38.603 --> 01:39:40.523
I wanna build Bronco, I wanna build my own,

01:39:40.523 --> 01:39:46.283
I wanna drop my own$400,000 on a stupid 32 Ford with a chopped top and a,

01:39:46.943 --> 01:39:51.412
yeah, I didn't, I didn't spend that kind of money, but I spent more than I should have.

01:39:51.412 --> 01:39:51.938
And I remember well

01:39:51.938 --> 01:39:53.993
and you probably, knowing you, you probably did a lot of your own stuff

01:39:53.993 --> 01:39:54.082
too.

01:39:54.082 --> 01:39:58.792
Yeah, I did a high majority until I got, like, I thought I could do all the body work and then at some point.

01:39:59.648 --> 01:40:00.122
Oh, this is just trash.

01:40:00.122 --> 01:40:01.297
I actually want this to look nice.

01:40:02.828 --> 01:40:04.537
If I'm ever gonna sell this thing

01:40:04.988 --> 01:40:08.707
for one third of how much I've invested into it, I better make it nicer.

01:40:08.978 --> 01:40:10.927
So that's why I said it's a terrible drug.

01:40:11.167 --> 01:40:11.528
Dig it.

01:40:11.707 --> 01:40:15.908
Thanks Melody for giving them that leash and high daughters.

01:40:15.908 --> 01:40:17.557
I hope you're having a good time out there.

01:40:18.457 --> 01:40:22.087
And, uh, any last questions for me or musics?

01:40:23.047 --> 01:40:23.108
No.

01:40:23.108 --> 01:40:26.618
Anything you want people to really know about Grass Fed Foods?

01:40:27.877 --> 01:40:31.568
I would say, you know, my message to people is live your values.

01:40:32.078 --> 01:40:32.167
Yeah.

01:40:32.167 --> 01:40:35.018
Do what you think is, you know, the best thing for you.

01:40:35.108 --> 01:40:50.828
Um, you know, the one thing too that I, I think is pretty interesting is just as you think about eating, one thing that I've really realized, particularly after my time, putting on a lot of weight in the food ingredient space and in the ice cream space.

01:40:50.828 --> 01:40:51.158
Like, were you

01:40:51.158 --> 01:40:51.787
really big?

01:40:52.358 --> 01:40:52.597
Yeah.

01:40:52.597 --> 01:40:55.238
At one point I was, I was pretty big.

01:40:55.238 --> 01:40:56.707
Like, I'm still, because you're not

01:40:56.707 --> 01:40:57.703
a real tall guy, right?

01:40:57.703 --> 01:40:58.103
Like, no,

01:40:58.103 --> 01:40:58.222
I'm.

01:40:58.988 --> 01:41:02.347
Like, in all honesty, I'm like, I'm still like a 210 pound guy.

01:41:02.438 --> 01:41:02.677
Whoa.

01:41:03.518 --> 01:41:03.938
Like I'm,

01:41:03.997 --> 01:41:04.988
you wear it very well.

01:41:05.587 --> 01:41:07.688
Uh, more muscle than fat.

01:41:07.837 --> 01:41:08.137
Yeah.

01:41:09.097 --> 01:41:09.518
Gotcha.

01:41:09.547 --> 01:41:11.917
But I was the opposite in those days.

01:41:11.917 --> 01:41:17.257
And like, you know, we have a chronic health issue Totally.

01:41:17.257 --> 01:41:18.097
In the US Yeah.

01:41:18.103 --> 01:41:18.143
Yeah.

01:41:18.578 --> 01:41:22.507
And people are, you know, people are in tough situations because they're eating the

01:41:22.507 --> 01:41:23.948
same candy that the cows are eating.

01:41:23.948 --> 01:41:24.427
Exactly.

01:41:24.457 --> 01:41:30.967
Kind of just different packages, you know, that's why you were selling train fulls of high fructose corn syrup.

01:41:31.177 --> 01:41:31.417
Yeah.

01:41:31.537 --> 01:41:35.978
And in those industries, like when you're selling the junk, you have high margins.

01:41:36.007 --> 01:41:36.398
Yeah.

01:41:36.938 --> 01:41:38.318
When you're selling real food.

01:41:38.528 --> 01:41:38.887
Yeah.

01:41:38.917 --> 01:41:46.148
It's hard and, but you know, if I could give any message to anybody, it's like, eat for your health and eat for the longevity.

01:41:46.153 --> 01:41:46.252
Yeah.

01:41:46.257 --> 01:41:46.507
Yeah.

01:41:46.507 --> 01:41:48.307
'cause I'd much rather spend.

01:41:48.967 --> 01:41:53.948
An extra couple bucks on high quality protein today and not spend, yeah, 10 more years.

01:41:53.948 --> 01:41:55.042
Medical bills, nursing home bills,

01:41:55.087 --> 01:41:57.127
and Yeah, exactly that end of life.

01:41:57.698 --> 01:42:02.438
Even if you, I mean, you'll probably live longer and you'll live better longer.

01:42:02.497 --> 01:42:03.068
Almost certainly.

01:42:03.068 --> 01:42:03.247
Yeah.

01:42:03.847 --> 01:42:04.747
So I dig it.

01:42:05.228 --> 01:42:05.707
Thanks Kevin.

01:42:05.828 --> 01:42:06.068
Thank

01:42:06.068 --> 01:42:06.337
you.

01:42:06.368 --> 01:42:07.207
Fun conversation.

01:42:07.297 --> 01:42:07.957
Super fun.

01:42:07.957 --> 01:42:08.768
Thank you very much.

01:42:08.768 --> 01:42:09.188
Got speed.