The Poultry Leadership Podcast
"Welcome to 'The Poultry Leadership Podcast,' where we dive deep into the world of poultry leadership to help you soar to new heights in your career. Join us as we sit down with some of the industry's most accomplished leaders, farm owners, and allied professionals. Gain valuable insights, strategies, and personal stories that reveal the secrets behind their success. Discover what makes these poultry visionaries the outstanding leaders they are. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, our show is your go-to resource for unlocking your full leadership potential. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey to becoming the poultry leader you aspire to be."
This podcast is brought to you by Prism Controls, the leader in Environmental Controls for the past 45 years! Check them out at http://www.prismcontrols.com
The Poultry Leadership Podcast
Building a Legacy in the Egg Industry: Jim Dean's Inspiring Story
Legendary poultry industry pioneer Jim Dean shares his remarkable journey, from a challenging childhood to a thriving career in the egg industry. With grit and determination, Jim made the tough choice to leave school early, supporting his family and ultimately building a successful career. His candid reflections on his experiences, including his time in Vietnam, reveal invaluable lessons on resilience and the power of learning through lived experiences.
Discover the entrepreneurial spirit that sparked the creation of Fremont Farms and so many more. Our discussion highlights the innovative strategies an entrepreneur used to tackle industry challenges, such as market volatility and cultural shifts after the loss of a mentor at the Boomsma Company. By aligning shared values with strategic partnerships and adapting to market demands, he navigated acquisitions and expansions with finesse, ensuring stability and continued success in the egg industry.
Explore the dynamics of leadership and growth in a family-run business through insights from a unique perspective—a non-family board member. We delve into overcoming procrastination, learning from mistakes, and addressing unforeseen challenges like avian influenza. The conversation offers a glimpse into the Versova Group's philanthropic efforts, emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community. Jim Dean's passion for leadership, hard work, and education shines through as he underscores the crucial role of preparing the next generation for the demands of animal agriculture.
https://www.versova.com/our-foundation/
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, brandon Mullnix. I am glad that you're here with us today, and when I say us, I have one of the industry legends. Today's guest is Jim Dean. Jim has done amazing things, he's won amazing awards recognized in the industry, and he agreed to share some of the wisdom that he's gained over the years in his story, and so I'm not going to probably be talking too much in this one. We've got a lot of wisdom that's going to be shared with us today. So, jim, welcome to the show.
Jim Dean:Well, thank you. At first I was a little hesitant, because I don't like coming off boastful, or because that's just not who I am. My story, I think, is unique, and so I was willing to share it with the industry and people listening to this podcast. So thanks for the opportunity.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, jim, I'm going to admit you were on my short list of people when I decided to start this podcast of people that if I could just capture a moment of what you've been able to do and what you've been able to learn with the future leaders, I think we're all going to grow because of your willingness to share the story. So, jim, tell me about Jim Dean. Where did you start with the story?
Jim Dean:Well, I didn't have your typical childhood that probably most people went through. My father was a construction worker, construction supervisor, and so for the first six years of my life we have every three months or four months. The job was completed. We lived in a little travel trailer, pulled behind a sedan, and we went to job site to job site. For example, my dad built the water cooling tower on the United Nation building in 1953. So I would have been in New York in 1953 living in a little travel trailer. One of the jobs was in New Orleans when I was and I started kindergarten in New Orleans, but then the job was done, so I actually was a kindergarten dropout.
Jim Dean:Jim couldn't continue on this gypsy life and so we settled in my father's hometown in Texas. Then, when I was 13, my parents decided to divorce. My mother and I moved to Iowa from where her family was from. My dad was ultimately killed in a car accident when I was 15 years old, so I never got a chance to reacquaint with my father when we moved back to Iowa. Of course my mother wasn't working. She had to find a job in Des Moines, iowa. To Iowa Of course my mother wasn't working. She had to find a job in Des Moines, iowa.
Jim Dean:I lived with an aunt and uncle and went to school in Pella, iowa Friday afternoons after school. I'd hitchhike to Des Moines in eighth grade to be with my mother on the weekends and then she'd take me back to Pella. We were having difficulty, struggling financially and so at 16, I decided to leave high school and go to work. I had an option to go to work at Pella Windows, the window factory in Pella, iowa, at $1.40 an hour at that time this is 1966. Or I could go work for an egg company at $1.15 an hour and I could work as many hours as I wanted at time and a half. And you can do the math. And I thought the only way I'm going to get myself out of poverty was to work.
Jim Dean:So I started working for Neil Bumsma when I was 16. We wound up growing the company. I was the only non-family member ever allowed to buy into that business. When I started with the company back in 1966, we had a 35 case agomatic. We grew the company, bought plants and businesses and we had three operations in Missouri, three in Iowa, one in Minnesota distribution center in Dallas, and those, ultimately, were under my management.
Jim Dean:So I spent a lot of time on the road. Marilyn fortunately my wife fortunately could stay at home and she raised the boys. Marilyn and I were married. She was three months out of high school, I was 19 years old, and eight months later I was in Vietnam and it wasn't on a luxury cruise to Vietnam either. So I've learned a lot in the business. I was in management. I was in. My first job when I started with Bumsma's when I was 16 years old, was cleanup and I'd pack eggs, you know, individually, pick up the eggs and put them in egg cartons. I worked in accounting, I worked in sales management. So I spent 27 years with the Bumsma company. That's really was my education. I've got a PhD in the School of Hard Knocks because of that education. That gets at least started from my youth to later on into the probably into the 90s.
Brandon Mulnix:So, jim, I remember you sharing a story about coming home from the military and having to make a choice of either going to school or working in the farm. Can you elaborate on that one?
Jim Dean:either going to school or working in the farm. Can you elaborate on that one? Yeah well, I was in Vietnam. Of course, school really was never my thing, I'd rather work. Marilyn, she worked two jobs. She worked at Pella Windows at the time and then she worked at a drugstore at night. And her goal was the year I was in Vietnam, that she was going to put me through college.
Jim Dean:And I came back. I really didn't like school, it wasn't my thing, and I told her that I was just going to go back, talk to my boss for a little bit, catch up on things from being gone, and so forth. Neil and I agreed that it was probably the best thing for myself and for the business for me to go back to work. So I came back to my wife. I said we really don't have enough money for me to go to school and not work. So I'm going to work for a little while so we can accumulate enough money for me to go to school, with no intention of ever going back to school.
Jim Dean:And I thought it was almost the would be the end of our marriage, because she'd worked so hard the time I was in Vietnam. We've been married 56 years, so it's been quite a trek for us. It's been quite an amazing journey. Our love for each other has been amazing and I always think back how life would be so different if I had decided to go to school and go back and get a degree. Sometimes I feel a little remiss that I didn't, but I think for the most part I think everything turned out all right.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, it seems like you've made a few good choices along the way, and she did stick with you all these 56 years and you've got three amazing sons. Tell us a little bit about your family.
Jim Dean:Well, back then, when the boys were in high school, I said you know your mother and I are going to pay for your college education. Go get a real job. Don't follow me in the business. It's too difficult, it's too hard, Disease pricing, government regulations and everything. Matt went into banking was very successful in mergers and acquisitions. Ross ultimately decided to come into the business after another career. Jt, the oldest son, has been with me 25 years, so it's kind of a quasi family business, but really our business is built with partners.
Brandon Mulnix:As I've learned more and more about. It's not the Jim Dean farm, a group of farms. Tell us your journey into the business of farming. I mean you talked about buying into early farms. Just kind of share that journey.
Jim Dean:With the Booms of my company. I was there 27 years. I really thought that my career was going to be ultimately with the Bumsma Company for the rest of my career in the business. Ultimately there was an event that happened. Neil Bumsma, in 1989, died of a heart attack at 51 years old. I was 40 at the time. So in essence I'd lost two fathers in my lifetime.
Jim Dean:I started for Neil when I was 16, worked until I was 40 with Neal. That happened in 89. And then the other partners in the business was extremely successful. But it just wasn't the culture I wanted to be involved with. So in 1993, I decided to sell my interest in the business. So in 1993, I didn't own a chicken, I wasn't involved in business or anything. Then it was a point that I had to pick up the pieces, figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Blair Vincetin called me and he wanted to know he was having trouble with his company and he wanted to know whether I would be willing to partner with him. I agreed to partner with Blair. Finsettan was a good friend up until his passing. We wound up building Fremont Farms. Also we built Fremont Farms of Iowa with other partners Because at the time when I sold my interest in the business and the Boomsman Company, I had a buyout but it wasn't substantial enough that I was going to go out and build large farms and so forth.
Jim Dean:So I had to find partners that were like-minded, understood animal agriculture and had the same value system, for the most part, that I did, and that was extremely important to find partners that had that same value system that Neil Boomsma had instilled in me many, many years ago. I'm just one of these entrepreneurial spirits that if I think I can make something work, I'll try and do it. A long relationship with a lot of the leaders in the industry and we continue to build and grow the business.
Brandon Mulnix:So when you find these opportunities around the industry, what risk do you take when you go and you look and you say, hey, that farm over there. I think we want to bring that one into the fold. How do you make those decisions?
Jim Dean:I'd spent my career in a boomsman company where it seemed like we'd make 10 cents a dozen one year and we'd lose 12 cents a dozen the next year. So I wanted to find a different type of marketing arrangement and a different type of system. So a lot of what we've done in the industry is on a grain-based contract. If you're a good egg producer, a top egg producer, you could wind up making money and you weren't at risk with the egg market money and you weren't at risk with the egg market. So I've got 20 years with the same, or 30 years actually, with the same banking firm, because that's been extremely successful for us to be in that type of business where you're not downturns of market. Of course, now a lot of our business is still on a grain-based model. Now we're not making necessarily the kind of money that some of the other egg producers that are making, but when the downturn comes and the downturn will come again and the industry will be profitable and so forth.
Jim Dean:So it was a model that worked well for the egg products business, because in the egg products industry you're just an ingredient in somebody else's process, whether that's a jar of mayonnaise, whether that's a breakfast sandwich or whether that's ice cream, you're just an ingredient. The industry was really looking at more of a stable type pricing mechanism rather than the volatile fluctuation of the market. It was something that we were able to grow our business on and be very successful. We still use that model today on a large portion of what we do. We found that even some of the large retailers now are starting to use that type of model. You know I'm not going to start naming retailers, you know as far as that goes, but they found that they like that stable pricing on the shelf rather than the volatility as far as offering their customers everyday low prices.
Brandon Mulnix:You've been through a lot in the industry, a lot of ups and downs. You talk about the pricing and how you stabilized it. What were some of the bigger challenges that you faced over your career?
Jim Dean:Other than being with a company for 27 years, and a death of a mentor and leader was extremely critical to where I was going to go in life and what I was going to do in life. I've had to kind of reinvent myself several times over the years. You know you go through downturns in the market. You know we had the opportunity and I think most of the industry thought that I finally had gone off the deep end when we had the opportunity to purchase assets from DeCoster on a lease arrangement and in 2011, we tripled the size of our business in about a six-month time from what we were doing. Our partners all went along with us and at that time, steve Boomsma, neil Boomsma's son, brian Boomsma, who would have been a nephew of Neil. I called those guys up and I said, hey, you want to get back in a business, you want to get back into this. And both of them said we're in and, along with some of the other partners that I'd been involved with for many years, also said we're in. And so you know we're looking at really an extremely difficult time when you take over a business like that and triple the size of your business One of the big mistakes I made on a lease purchase arrangement was I thought it would be easier to change the culture.
Jim Dean:We almost had to go through the entire organization and change everybody because it was so difficult to change the culture. It was a difficult time. We made it through it. A large retailer came to us and wanted to look at grain-based pricing. They knew that I'd probably and our company knew more about grain-based pricing than most people in the industry, and so they were willing to go out on a limb and actually start buying the eggs from some of the facilities that had the largest recall in the history of the industry, and that was one of the things that put us on the map. They sought us out as that we were honest, we would do what we say we were going to do and we'd get it accomplished and we'd get the farms cleaned up, we'd get them back in production, and the large retailer went along with us and continued to start buying the eggs from us.
Brandon Mulnix:The challenge of a recall, that's one of those things that just can crush a business, crush an industry. Avian influenza, employment, all of these challenges, trying to figure it out what's one that's harder than the other. I mean, I guess, because you've gone through so many different challenges.
Jim Dean:You know, I guess I'm probably the eternal optimist. One of the things that Neil taught me early on in my career I was probably a procrastinator because in a business organization I was in between generations, from the brothers to the cousins and nephews and so forth. So I was in between. So it was really difficult. When you're the only non-family member that's sitting in a board of directors with the rest of the family, it's really difficult to make a decision. And Neil instilled in me that, jim, you're going to have to change what you're doing, you're going to have to make decisions. And he said if it's the wrong decision, we'll go back, we'll figure out how to fix it and then we'll take care of it. And that's kind of my process all the way through that don't procrastinate.
Jim Dean:The people that look at things and say, well, I wish I would have done that are the ones that probably aren't successful. Well, I'm one of these that I always figure that I'll figure out how to get it accomplished and how to get it done, and that's been a big part of us growing the business. The first contract, seven-year long-term contract that was signed on a grain-based. I'm thinking I've got the contract in front of me, ready to sign my name on my thinking Do I have everything covered here? Do I have everything? That all the costs are included? One thing that wasn't included in the early contracts was avian influenza. Nobody anticipated that that would ever be an issue, that we'd lose entire complexes. That's been corrected now you know subsequently.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, lessons learned for sure. You at least lived past the first time it happened and were able to correct it for the next one. If you can go back, you said you made all these decisions and you threw it out there. Is there a decision you wish you would have made differently?
Jim Dean:Boy, that's really a hard decision because for me, I generally don't look back on decisions, good or bad. I just keep moving forward on decisions. So I'm not sure that I've really put in my brain what is the bad decision that I wish I didn't do, because all of those are part of the process of building a company. You're always going to make mistakes. We're human beings. We make mistakes. Nobody's perfect and all you have to do is keep moving forward and learn. And, like I tell our management team, I understand people are going to make mistakes Everybody's human but let's learn from that mistake, let's move on, fix the issue and not keep making the same mistake over and over.
Brandon Mulnix:Jim, that's one thing that I recognize is your internal optimism and moving forward, just meeting you and watching your companies grow. Which companies are you part of in terms of either? The Versova group.
Jim Dean:Versova. The name. Ross came up with that name, I think through some advisors. A lot of our partners are Dutch and my grandfather came from the Netherlands in 1907 on my mother's side of the family. That's why the Dean name obviously comes from my father. Ross came up with that name. Vers is Dutch for new or fresh. If you look for a translation, it's new or fresh. Ova is Latin for egg, hence Versova. That's where the name came from.
Jim Dean:Because we were growing the business and growing the companies and so forth, we had to form a management company and Versova wound up being the management company. As we've grown the business, we have various partners in different companies. You know some partners decide that lifestyle changes or the risk tolerance might be different. Some of the companies are less risk adverse, Some are more risky being on the open market and so forth. So we had to structure our business around the Iowa corporate farming law. That's why you probably have never seen CalMain as a corporation come into Iowa because of the Iowa corporate farming law. That's why you probably have never seen CalMain as a corporation come into Iowa because of the Iowa corporate farming law. It's not allowed. You can try and structure around. So I've structured all of our businesses as LLPs, yeah, limited partnerships, and so forth.
Jim Dean:As we've acquired companies, we didn't change the name.
Jim Dean:We kept virtually all of the company names that we've acquired over the years, whether that's Morning Fresh or Oakdale or Willamette, Of course, Center Fresh Group, Hawkeye Pride.
Jim Dean:When we decided to build Hawkeye, which is a large six million bird complex, conventional and cage free, on a cost plus contract, you know, we came up with a name and some of that Hawkeye Pride came from what Wall Bombs did with Husker Pride and I thought, well, if they can do that, I can do this. And that as we acquire companies and I've found that my sons are probably more aggressive and moving forward than maybe what I was it's just a mindset that we have that we want to continue to grow the business. I've always said if we can't manage it properly, I don't want to be involved in it, because management is so important and what I drive home is it's so critical. Early on, JT will tell the story about how I drove into them that you always had to be in the top third of the Chilson management reports, which are no longer in existence. But I kept telling him that if we're not in the top third. We're not going to make it in the business, and so production performance is really key to our success.
Brandon Mulnix:As someone new to the egg industry about five years ago trying to figure out all the different companies, and thank you for explaining it to me. I think that will help others understand kind of how that all works, because that commercial farming law I'm from Michigan, I didn't know anything about it over there, so thank you for explaining that. You've seen government change. You've seen good, bad ugly when it comes to regulations. What are some of the more challenging regulations that you've had to deal with over your career?
Jim Dean:Regulations come and go as administration changes, so it's probably difficult to try and pinpoint any particular regulation that comes to mind. That is an issue. You just have to deal with it as they come at you and trying to figure out what you do there. For a long time, OSHA was a big problem. It still is a big problem. That's why I preached to our management team that safety is extremely important. I take it personally If somebody loses an eye or a limb or a finger or a life. I take it personally because I don't ever want to be involved in that. So we are very critical to make sure that we're OSHA compliant. We make sure that we e-verify everybody because I want to make sure that we have a stable workforce or as stable as possible. We e-verify everybody in our companies.
Brandon Mulnix:I mean you hit on a couple of them. You know OSHA and the immigration stuff and giving back. I've got to witness that the Versova family of farms and the way that they do their giving back. Where does that come from?
Jim Dean:For me, I go back to my history. I go back to what are my roots with the Boomsma Company. When I was a partner in the Boomsma Company it was a requirement that of the earnings that were earmarked for your percentage of ownership, you had to give 5% to charity. It was a requirement. You can name any charity, whether it's a church, whether it's a heart association or whatever it may be, but you had to give 5% of those profits back. Now I couldn't bring that philosophy necessarily to a group of partners that weren't necessarily like-minded on how they wanted to, because whether they wanted to do personally or whatever, but we just feel that it's important to give back to the communities and we try and do it.
Jim Dean:We have formed Versova Foundation, community Foundation. We're involved in some work in Mozambique on school systems and vocational schools, where we were involved with taking young adults out of the villages, teaching them business management and agriculture. They get a little plot of land, they can sell their vegetables in the local villages and so we hope that we're actually educating the next leaders in that organization, that country, because Africa is obviously extremely unique. A lot of people put a lot of capital and investments and contributions into Africa, but it winds up going into graft, corruption, and doesn't get down to where it's actually helping people, and there needs to be more work by people that are willing to put boots on the ground and actually do things and educate people and so forth. So that's why we're involved in those things. Our foundation has four pillars and that's youth, education, agriculture and first responders and so forth and others. So it's just our way of trying to give back and prove the communities that we have operations in.
Brandon Mulnix:No, and you guys, I think, give back in other ways through. I know a number of your partners support Iowa State University, and I mean your group. You've given a lot when it comes to things that you're most proud of. What is one moment you're just really proud of?
Jim Dean:It's our team, it's our people. They all work together and they don't point fingers at each other, they don't blame each other. I tell management check your ego at the door, because we don't have a place for it in this organization. I've seen companies that will hire some of the top people in the industry, but they're all type A people that have their own way of doing things and they could never get everybody cooperating, moving the wagon in the same direction. The people are in.
Jim Dean:Our team is what I'm most proud of, especially for our industry dealing with high path. Yeah, it's a financial toll, there's no doubt about it, but it's a human toll that I don't know that there's any way to calculate the toll that that takes on the humans, that people that actually have to do that work on a farm that spend their careers making sure the birds are healthy and then get hit by this hideous disease and they have to put all the birds down. It's really heart-wrenching to have your team have to go through that Financial side of it. Yeah, most people will figure it out and survive through it, but it's the toll on people that really bothers me.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, it's a hard one Just watching people move out of the industry because of it, putting their keys to the farm and saying I'm done. It's hard to see over a disease that we just don't seem to be able to get our hands wrapped around. So, jim, if I'm starting out as a leader in this industry or an employee in this industry and I get to get interviewed by Jim Dean and get to say, hey, this is my advice for someone, get coached by Jim Dean, tell me how I can be successful.
Jim Dean:Well, it's unfortunate, I think a lot of people of course I don't get involved in the interview process, but too many of the younger people in the younger generation. There's really a lot of great people in the younger generation. There's a lot of them that don't have the background and don't have the understanding. They want to know how quickly they can have my job. You know, how quickly are they going to move up the ladder? I moved up the ladder by proving myself. Obviously. Neil Williams saw something in me to allow me to be the only non-family member ever allowed to buy in a business, and that was because of hard work and dedication and doing what it took that the company needed to do to get the job done.
Jim Dean:You know, the advice to younger people are make sure you understand that animal agriculture is extremely difficult. It's not pretty. You're going to be in it 365 days a year. That plant doesn't shut down for Christmas. You get the phone calls in the middle of the night that the building's on fire and you have to get up and take care of emergencies that happen. Or tornado hits, you know, or even influenza hits. Make sure you're mentally prepared for those kind of challenges, and a lot of people aren't.
Jim Dean:You know a lot of young people want that nine to five job and they don't understand it. That's why one of our pillars is to educate and support young people that want to go into animal agriculture, because we don't have that talent to draw on that maybe we did years ago. I mean, as we get farther and farther away from our ancestors or my ancestors, that taught me hard work was extremely important. We're getting farther and farther away from that. I mean it used to be that I could hire plants. I could hire high school kids that wanted to work after school or wanted to work on Saturdays. One of my first jobs, besides cleanup, was going with a rock truck driver and picking up two to five cases of eggs from every farm and we'd spend the entire days picking up 200 cases of cases of eggs from every farm and we'd spend the entire day picking up 200 cases of eggs to process the next day and so forth. So you know it's going to be extremely difficult more difficult to get started in the business.
Jim Dean:I wouldn't recommend anybody to take my career path that I started in the industry because I'm not sure it would work in this day and age. I just coach somebody to make sure that they're mentally prepared for that. You can think you are, but until you go through it, are you really prepared for the challenges that will come at you? Because whether it's the management team that deal with high path, or the first person or the last person that was hired, they're all gonna deal with it. We make a policy in our company. We don't lay people off when we lose a farm, because we want to keep everybody employed when we repopulate. We've got a fully trained and very loyal crew, so we keep everybody employed through that downturn.
Brandon Mulnix:So the third generation of deans are coming up through the farm. I got to meet your grandson this last summer. Does he get any special treatment or does he get actually a harder job because he's a dean coming up through one of the farms?
Jim Dean:Yeah, I'll answer you this way and JT's probably not going to be happy with me. But I'll tell the story on JT. When I hooked up with Blair Vincetin at Oskaloosa Food Products, he worked at Oskaloosa for the summer when he was in college and he was given some of the most difficult, back-breaking, hardest jobs that were there. And he came home one night, came back to the house and he'd been busting up concrete in a cooler, on a floor that had to be repaired. He goes to his mother and says look at me, I've got dust all over me. I've been, you know, breaking up concrete. I could be working at Taco John's.
Jim Dean:That was kind of one of those father-son training moments. Do you have the wherewithal to do that? I think I'm pretty confident that James, my grandson, is not given any preferential treatment. What they're doing is they've got him working, whether it's in a manure line, whether that's in cleanup, whatever. He's learning the entire business. He's learning all the operations. But I'm pretty sure that his father's told the leaders out at the farms you don't give him any preferential treatment because he won't learn what the business is all about and whether he's got the staying power to stay with the business.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, I've seen your managers at the golf outing not give him any preferential treatment whatsoever. The boss. You know it's the boss's son, but it's good to see him coming up through the farm.
Jim Dean:And I think it's important for the new people to come into the business and I said this at the UEP meeting in Colorado whether it's a male or female, you have to learn the business from the ground up.
Jim Dean:Even though your mother and father maybe started the business and grew the business and so forth. You can't come in and come in as an executive because you won't relate to the rest of the people. You won't relate to the rest of the team members unless you learn the business. And that's what James is doing now. Now, whether he decides to come back in the business or not, or whether we as partners decide for him to come back in the business or not, or whether we as partners decide for him to come back in the business and whether he can add value to the business, that's a decision that we'll have to make. But people that come in, especially with the owners, family members, they have to make sure that they learn the business. They can't just come in as an executive because they won't relate to the team. It'll be really difficult to lead a team that you can't relate to.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, there's a lot of truth in that. It's just that generation, you know, it's good for them to learn. So, Jim, as we've looked back, let's look forward. What's next for Jim Dean?
Jim Dean:Next for me personally, or next for me as a business?
Brandon Mulnix:let's cover both.
Jim Dean:I'm 75 years old. I've been doing this since I was 16. I love the business, I love being involved and as long as I can contribute and whether a mentor or an advisor I'm going to continue on. I have no plans of just retiring. I see my friends retire and watch TV or they don't have hobbies or they don't do charitable work, charitable activities and so forth. So as long as I can contribute, I'll be involved and stay involved in the business.
Jim Dean:My wife and I love to travel. Even though I stated I didn't like school, I still want to see the pyramids. I've seen the pyramids. I've seen the Great Wall of China. We travel the world. We're fortunate to be able to do those type of things. My hobbies are car collecting and so forth. I enjoy golf, getting out the business. As far as that goes, I anticipate that we'll continue to grow the business because our partners have the same value system that I have and have that same concept of passing this business on to the next generation, whether they're actively involved or whether they're financially involved. We look at passing this business on. So we want to continue to grow the business the right way If we find things that fit into our wheelhouse and what we're good at. We'll continue to grow the business.
Brandon Mulnix:Is there anything that you can share with the industry that they might not already know about you, a hobby or something that you're just like? I bet you, the industry doesn't know this about me.
Jim Dean:Most of the industry you know, I think, knows that I'm an avid card collector. I'm an avid coin collector. Coins are one of my big hobbies. My father years ago, when he was traveling a lot he would bring coins from various, so he got me started at a very young age into coin collecting. We like to do charitable functions.
Jim Dean:I'm a partner in Odyssey Aquarium down in Arizona, which is a little unique to be an Odyssey Aquarium but when we built that it's built on an Indian reservation and I'm thinking I got to deal with animal activists in the industry. I'm not sure I want to deal with animal activists because of an aquarium. Well, come to find out if you lease land from the and I think this is. I think we've got somebody in the industry that happens to have a farm on the Indian reservation in Arizona. You can't demonstrate on Indian reservation. It's a federal law against demonstrating, so they don't have to deal with any animal activists.
Jim Dean:Also, my wife has an art gallery in Scottsdale, in Old Town, and so she's extremely interested, involved in that art gallery and she's got me chasing around to this art exhibit in San Diego and she was in Florida. So we were up in Montreal to one of the artists up in Montreal that has a studio and a gallery up there. That keeps us involved, you know, in different things. So I've done some diversification rather than the egg industry, to keep me active and keep me interested and so forth.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, I've had the pleasure of touring your art gallery there in Scottsdale and there's great pieces of art there and I think of Jim Dean the chicken farmer, great pieces of art there, and I think of Jim Dean the chicken farmer, jim Dean the art collector. They don't typically go hand in hand, but when I see you light up as you talk about your cars and your car collection and I'm so glad that JT shared that with me a couple of years ago let me see under the hood, so to speak, and what a beautiful car collection you have. Is there any last minute words of wisdom that you want to share with the industry?
Jim Dean:The industry has to me has really great people in it. They are all hardworking individuals and it's just. It's almost to me a brotherhood or a sisterhood. Will we fight each other in the retail side of the business or the wholesale side of the business, but will we come together in AEB or UEP and work together for a common goal? Certainly, and that takes people that are willing to do that type of work.
Jim Dean:You know, I said early on in my career if I'm going to be involved in the business, I want to be involved helping making the rules and regulations, whether that's dealing with government, elected officials. Governor Kim Reynolds has been to my car collection. We've done a lot of various fundraisers for her, for Randy Feenstra, so I can get to know. We've had Mike Pence here, we've had Nikki Haley here, I've had Tim Scott here at the car collection where we talk about life and we talk about rules and regulations and so forth. I've always wanted to be involved in the rulemaking, whether it's at the legislative side of it or whether it's at the industry side of it, and I think UEP is a tremendous organization, aeb is a tremendous organization to promote the industry and I just hope people stay involved, stay engaged in that process and it'll be for the betterment of the industry.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, Jim, thank you for allowing me this time to interview you.
Jim Dean:Well, you're certainly welcome. I mean, you know, I've told my story many, many times over the years and people look at me like, really, you know I'll do that. When we go to employee appreciation I'll speak to our team members and they'll look at me like you started at 16 on cleanup. That's just my history. I was just fortunate and blessed. I've told a lot of people that I've got guardian angels sitting on both sides of my shoulders helping me along the way, and I think it's my faith that has pulled me through some of the crisis and dealing with this, treating people properly and fairly, and I think that's extremely important to do that and give back.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, podcast listeners, I know how much I was blessed to be able to have this interview and I'm sure you're blessed as well. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Please, as we go out throughout the day, share this podcast with the industry. Help share the stories that make this industry so great. People like Jim and Jim's partners and we're just talking, that's just the Versova group of families, and there's so many more throughout this great United States that work every day to feed the world and if you're listening to this, more than likely you're part of that family. I just can't go out without saying thanks to Prism Controls for allowing me this opportunity to come out and sit down with Jim and just hear his story. So please check out Prism Controls online prismcontrolscom. Say thank you to their leadership so that way they know that you want this to continue. Have a great day.
