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
Servant Leadership: Why Your Questions Matter More Than Your Answers with Jay Halliday
Jay Halliday of Vaxinova joins host Brandon Molnix for a heartfelt conversation about servant leadership that goes far beyond traditional management advice. Their candid exchange dives into how leadership principles transform not just workplaces but every human relationship.
Jay shares his unexpected journey into agriculture through his language skills, which launched him into an international business development role requiring extensive global travel. While professionally exhilarating, this schedule created personal challenges that taught him valuable lessons about balance and priorities. His revelation came through discovering servant leadership and specifically the "Coach Approach" - learning to ask "what does your gut tell you?" instead of always providing answers. This simple shift empowers others and builds genuine ownership and passion.
The discussion takes a compelling turn as they explore how asking better questions transforms relationships. Brandon and Jay reveal how changing "how was your day?" to "what was a win today?" creates deeper connections with children, team members, and even bosses. They unpack the importance of aligning people's natural talents with appropriate roles, using frameworks like "get it, want it, capacity to do it" to ensure everyone thrives in their position.
Perhaps most powerfully, Jay opens up about his personal growth journey toward humility, offering his favorite definition: "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself—it's thinking of yourself less." This vulnerability creates space for listeners to reflect on their own leadership approach, whether they lead teams, families, or simply influence those around them.
What leadership principles have transformed your relationships? Have you discovered the power of asking better questions? Join the conversation and share your experiences with the Poultry Leadership community.
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 Mulnix. This has been quite the adventure. If you've been listening over the last few episodes, you've heard some amazing people from our industry and I pride myself in just being able to capture stories and share those stories with you, the listeners. Throughout the journey, I continue to meet all of these great people and as I look back I'm like hey, who can I get on the show? That has had a pretty big impact on me. From afar, he probably doesn't even realize how much of an impact he has. I want to bring Jay Halliday from Vaxinova to you today because Jay is one of these people in the industry that, wherever you go, he's probably there and he's probably talking to somebody. He's probably already deeply engaged in their family story and all of these things. I'm excited to bring Jay onto the show. So, Jay, welcome to the show.
Jay Halliday:Hey, Brandon, you're such a rock star. Hey, thank you too kind, too kind, too kind.
Brandon Mulnix:So, Jay, tell the audience a little bit about who you are, so they can kind of put the picture together.
Jay Halliday:Sure, holy cows. So currently working for Vaxinova. Vaxinova is a vaccine company. I'm sure we'll talk more about it Feel really blessed in sales and marketing Always been a passion of mine.
Jay Halliday:People relationships how did I get here? I was kind of thinking about that when you kicked this off. It's kind of a shout out to anybody listening to this that is not too involved in ag or has family and friends that aren't too immediately involved in ag, because I did not come from an ag background. When I thought of agriculture I thought it was just row crop farming, really didn't see the greater picture. And now I see that ag has so many different, fun and exciting career opportunities. We need IT, we need tech. Of course there's HR and accounting. This is outside of just handling birds or grain or anything of the sort. Thousands of career options here in Ag.
Jay Halliday:So I fell into this pretty backwards. I graduated from the University of Minnesota with Spanish, global and Foreign Studies and didn't really know what I wanted to do. But actually the couple of things I wanted to do was take a one-way ticket to Europe or to Asia or go to LA, for acting school was my hopes and dreams. I speak some Spanish and I was looking for a job coming back to the summer here in Minnesota that was kind of a Spanish focus, and found this job Novatec, novatec Engineering. They needed a Spanish translator and traveler, and so I just kind of threw my name in the hat and that brought me right into a poultry career. That was in 2007 and I've really loved it ever since.
Brandon Mulnix:It doesn't surprise me that you wanted to go to Hollywood and be an actor. That's a piece of the story that I'm not surprised about. I didn't guess that. But man, that is absolutely I can see.
Jay Halliday:I never made it.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, you're famous. Now You're on a podcast, at least let's go. So, Jay, you just mentioned where you kind of started in the industry and how did you get there? I mean, what are some of the things that you really noticed right off the bat that were influential to you and helped you become who you?
Jay Halliday:are today. Undoubtedly with Novatec. I had a really big passion for travel, didn't do a lot of traveling in my younger years. I always had the bug for it, ideally, internationally, really wanted to use that Spanish and Novatec really afforded me that opportunity. So Novatec does the infrared beak treatment and vaccination in the hatchery. So if you get birds, chickens, ducks, turkeys, you're probably seeing their product in the field.
Jay Halliday:I was in charge of international business development Mexico, down South South America, spain and Portugal. Me and a team of people like me were traveling almost two weeks on, two weeks off, probably like 10, 12 days out and then home for a couple of weeks and do it again. It's so interesting, that team, if you're kind of flying the wall listening to that team talk. It was so normal for us but probably so wild for others to hear because the conversations would be like, hey, this week I'm going to Spain, I'm going to be in the weekend in Paris. Before I dropped down to the Netherlands I got to put in a new machine. Someone's like hey, I'm going to be in Bulgaria, I'm actually blessing to see in the world and getting paid to do it. Spent a month down in Australia, new Zealand, in China for a few weeks launching our company there. Really have been blessed to see a lot of the world.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, what an opportunity you do take it for granted when you're having conversations about bouncing around to all of those incredible places that people just put on their bucket list to go there for personal and vacation and stuff like that, where it's like, yeah, I'm just going to run through Paris today and, oh, I might drive by the Eiffel Tower on the way to the job site, whatever you know, things like that where you just kind of take it for granted. I know it's been important for me the travel piece spending all of the years in my previous career in an ambulance looking up in the sky, going. How do those people get those jobs where they get to fly all the time? And now I'm in a role where I get to travel a lot. But you said you were on two weeks on, two weeks off. How did that work for you personally?
Jay Halliday:Brandon, not that well, if I could go back, someone asked me recently. They said what's the dumbest thing you've ever done in your life? Literally the dumbest thing I've ever done in my whole life when we had our first child. I didn't stop. I actually was quite the opposite. We were kind of incentivized in salary more. Did you hear that A bird just hit my window? Did you hear that I did? That was weird, I apologize. We were incentivized more salary-wise to travel. So when we had our first child I just thought the right thing to do for the family was to travel significantly, both financially to support, and then when my wife at the time would come back to work, I could take some time off and be home. And that is just the dumbest thing. It's really hard to have especially young children and travel. So that puts quite a bit of stress on a relationship.
Brandon Mulnix:So how did you overcome that?
Jay Halliday:I don't know that. I did Brandon, so I have two kids. They're my whole world actually. Right at the time that I transitioned to Vaxnova, that was 2019 so I went from international business development to national business development and I actually I don't miss the international fraction that much. I have some great friends around the world that I love seeing and we we still get invites for weddings in this. But the national piece has been so much healthier and easier relationally just to pop out two nights or three nights a week and be back, versus these really long, grudging couple of weeks on, couple of weeks off, right. But it's a hard and unique lifestyle. The traveler's lifestyle it really is, and you know very well, you're familiar with it. So really kudos or cheers to anybody that is able to manage that with their family and relationships and find the balance with work Well.
Brandon Mulnix:I think it's balance. You use that word right there balance. If I were 20-something, 30-something, travel probably would be a lot harder, based on raising my family being part of that, instead of me traveling. In those years I just worked a lot. I had the same challenges you did in terms of not being there for my family, but mine was because I was putting in the hours 100 and some hours a week. Because putting in the hours hundred and some hours a week because there was plenty of hours to fill and not realizing what that would do to that development of my child and relationship and all of that stuff, that's really important. Thankfully, my kids have grown up so it's not nearly as much of a challenge. Now they can, as I say, wipe their own butts and feed themselves. At 17 years old my youngest Good stage.
Jay Halliday:Oh, that's good, he can finally learn he doesn't listen to this. So I can say that it's not cool for him.
Jay Halliday:Yeah, you know, when you say that, that reminds me. You hear of people when they interview people on their deathbed and they ask a lot of questions and the one thing that never turns out and you've probably heard this is that people say I wish I worked more. I want to be careful when I say that I'm really very passionate about my customers and my career, but it's great to work for a company that really understands the work-life balance. They're very supportive and with all the travels, I'm pretty able to look at my family schedule when kids got maybe baseball games or things and then build my travel around that. So I'm still getting out two nights a week but I'm home for all those primary important moments with my family and I've got the full support of Accinoma behind me to do that.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, you got to remember our customers also have a usually work-life balance issue. They don't hide from the fact that their kids have sports and their kids have dance and their kids have all of the same activities that yours do and mine do. So to explain to them yeah, I'm taking some time off to do that, they get it. And in fact, that's the best part of our industry is they get it. I've not met a customer yet in our industry that has said my company is more important than your personal life. I've never heard that we do life together.
Brandon Mulnix:That's a great thing about, like even a social media world is when you're friends with your customers on social media, you start to be able to relate to what they're going through and the challenges that they have. You know sickness, or you start reading about their family members dealing with cancer or death in their family and it's like we're all one big family here. We just have different parts. And so for you, you were off, you know, traveling the world excited and, and now it's it seems to be like you're settling in, which is great. I see, get to see your pictures with your kids and all the adventures you guys do too. So you're doing a good job, dad. Way to way to reshift your focus.
Jay Halliday:It's the, it's the greatest man. Being dad is the absolute greatest. And priorities is important. I think for everybody, priorities is important. You know, something I learned the hard way by really overstretching myself in my younger years was, the more you say no to, you're actually saying yes to your current commitments right, not spreading yourself too thin. So being self-aware of your time and what you say yes to becomes really important.
Brandon Mulnix:I'm sorry, Jay. I said yes to this podcast. I may have to cancel that no.
Jay Halliday:I want to comment on something you said, though, and this is kind of the same for you and I both, because I see you frequently around the industry and love spending time with you. The people in the poultry industry are wonderful people like the best. Right, I see people in the poultry industry more than I see my friends at home, honestly. So I'm in the middle of Minnesota. This is one of the highest well, it's the highest turkey producing county in the nation, maybe the world. We believe it's kind of like Genio and us here with Select Genetics and then Butterball down in North Carolina, but a ton of poultry here, a ton of poultry companies and families here, and I could discuss some of the history as of why. But even some of these people that live right next to me, I only see them out in California or out in Ohio or Indiana at some of these events. Right, it's so funny and I think, that's important.
Jay Halliday:I love sales, but I don't look at sales through short-sighted, cold call type sales. My sales philosophy is build relationships.
Jay Halliday:Hopefully in those conversations you might have an opportunity to share with a customer or a friend the product lines that you have and then, if there's a need down the future that they say oh yeah like, for instance, we have a really great E coli product, and so my hope is just to be able to share that at some point with customers, maybe how it's worked for other producers no pushing, no tails and then in the future maybe they go cage free or they have some organic outdoor birds and they're really struggling with some E coli peritonitis or some E coli mortality and they think, oh yeah, Jay and I had that conversation and so they give you a call.
Jay Halliday:So it's a really big win-win Now anyway. So anyway, love the people in the poultry industry Some of my besties, for sure.
Brandon Mulnix:So one of your passions is leadership. Though when we were talking, it's like hey, what topic are we going to do? And you're like well, you host a leadership podcast. Idiot, you should probably talk about leadership with me. And I'm like okay, so, Jay, why are you so passionate about leadership?
Jay Halliday:That's so funny. So when I was at Novatec, I was leading a couple teams that were traveling all over the world and when I came here to Vaxanova, actually I'm not leading people, which leading people can be hard. It can be a challenge. It can be very rewarding If you really care about your people and then watching them continue to grow and develop and excel is extremely rewarding. Certainly can be some stress right At the same time. Leadership principles there's a couple that I really live by. Sometimes you go to different conferences or you know it could be again like a different kind of leadership training and you walk away really with nothing. And then there'll be that one that changes everything, and for me I would say that that foundation was called servant leadership. For your listeners that they've heard of servant leadership Even further, it's kind of a module of that called the coach approach, and coach approach really changed everything for me.
Brandon Mulnix:Why? Why did it change?
Jay Halliday:everything for you. So again, at Novocheck, we had kind of the same product for 12 years and I kind of felt like an expert, right. And so someone would come into your office and they'd say, hey, I've got this problem and of course you've seen it before. And so you say, yeah, here's the solution, here's the answer. Go do right. Yeah, maybe you're probably right, but you have to understand that you're hiring humans and not robots. You're hiring good people. You want them to bring their ideas, their creativity, their energy to the job. You don't want robots to say go do. And then they go do.
Jay Halliday:The coach approach really taught me when someone comes in to your office and they say, hey, I'm really struggling with this, instead of saying go do, say oh, that must be hard, right, there's some empathy there. And then to say, what's your gut? Tell you that you should do. And what happens is people. Maybe if your coworker or employee is hearing this for the first time, I mean I'd be like me. You care, you care about my ideas. It breeds a lot of ownership, first off, because it's their idea right A lot of passion for their job. When I started to really, out of curiosity, say, okay, what do you Sounds a little silly. I wouldn't have thought of that, but maybe it turns out to be the best thing for the situation and you can learn alongside your people.
Jay Halliday:You also have to be okay with failure or fail, as I like to say right, fail F-A-I-L. First attempt in learning, it's okay to fail. I mean, as a leader, you want to build an environment around you where people know it's okay to fail. Now, it's not okay for people to get hurt or for you to wipe out a barn of birds right, there are limits to this failure. But to fail small and then learn from failure we shouldn't continue to have the same failures. Right, it should be a learning mechanism. But you really want to let people know hey, I'm here for you, I care for you, I want you to bring your creativity. If you fail, I've got your back, I'm going to support you and we're going to learn from it. That's the coach approach in a nutshell.
Brandon Mulnix:Not easy but really powerful. Well, you said a lot of great things there, Jay. The empathy piece is important. We can continue as managers tell people what to do or as leaders guide them in what to do. There's a huge difference, and you also mentioned in there that, as you have people that you're not currently responsible for, you know in your chain of command, so to speak.
Brandon Mulnix:I've always find myself a leader wherever I'm at, and try to keep the same principles around. If I'm having a conversation at church, it's empathy. Oh man, that's hard. What does your gut feel? Saying very similar type conversations? Because we don't have to box ourself in as leaders at work. We're leaders of our family. How do we talk to our kids? Are you doing the same questions with your kids, or are you giving them the solution every time they walk through the door? Hey dad, I've got an issue with this. Are we leading at home? Are we leading with our wives, where sometimes we're not as guys supposed to fix things? We want to do that, but sometimes as leaders, we need to step back and say that's hard. How can we support you in that? Or what do you feel?
Jay Halliday:about that. I love what you just said. Sometimes we're not supposed to fix things. Have you seen the little YouTube video, two minute video called nail, in the forehead.
Brandon Mulnix:Oh my word, I have used that video probably a hundred times in conversations and send that to people. Okay For your listeners.
Jay Halliday:If you haven't just pause, go to YouTube, type and, I think, nail on the forehead right, they can find it and then come back to this podcast. That silly little two minute skit also fundamentally changed my whole life, and I really mean that because I've always been a fixer right, always been a hold up the mirror. Here's what you should do. Never been innately an empathetic person, and that changed everything for me. When I saw this, like wow, this human just needs to know that someone hears them. Stop pointing out the obvious, stop trying to fix things. Literally, just be present. They will figure it out, they will fix it. They just need you to empathize with their situation. It's really powerful. Not easy to do. That one's even harder to do.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, going back to that video and pointing out the most obvious things, because it's not just about a man with his girlfriend or his wife and pointing out the problem. It's more than that. It's the trust in building that relationship with a person and you mentioned that with your customers, that it's important to get to understand their problems and to not just be a salesperson. In that I've even found myself over the last number of years being a leader to my customers in times where they're trying to deal with some challenge and it's not my product or solution that's going to help them. It's going to be helping ask the right question so that way they're guided in potentially the right direction. Maybe they're stuck and they don't even know a direction, but at least guiding them in a direction, because we have our life's experiences that we can go on to help them. I have a question have you ever given someone advice that you know they're absolutely not going to take? Jeepers Brandon.
Jay Halliday:I was married once. Is that okay to say in the podcast? No, I don't know it is. It is I, brandon. I was married once. Is that okay to say in the podcast?
Brandon Mulnix:No, I don't know, it is. It is, I don't know. I don't know. Have you Tell me? Yes, oh, all the time. When I first got into fixing things being a leader, my job was I had to fix everything. I'm a supervisor they're going to come to me for everything and I had the best advice. Just ask me. I could tell you that I had the best advice. I walk away and watch them, literally do absolutely nothing, I say and it's reiterating the fact I have a son- yeah, I was going to say he does basically the same thing.
Jay Halliday:I'll do something related with my son.
Brandon Mulnix:You know, Hit him with a two-by-four Guy's just thick-skulled, right, but it's because there's no buy-in, there's no relationship. I didn't stop and listen. I'm trying to solve the problem. So, in the theory, with the nail and I have a hammer every problem that I'm currently dealing with could be used. I need a hammer for, and so I'm passionate about the hammer right now, and that's the only tool I need to use. And so growth, personal growth, self-assessment, things like that have really helped me.
Brandon Mulnix:Go man, I was a moron when I used to lead people, because, one, it's youthfulness. Two, it's inexperience. Three, emotional immaturity. When you think that I've got to have the answers to prove myself as a leader. When you realize that the best leaders are usually the ones that just ask the best questions, you go huh. It's so important to have the relationship, to understand the real problem, to say, hey, what is that nail, so to speak, in the person's life? You can identify it, you can help them identify it, but it doesn't mean you're there with a hammer trying to either pound it in or pull it out.
Jay Halliday:All these tools we're talking about, empathy, coach, approach, all these things really they culminate and come together in raising little children. Raising little children can be really hard. This book that still sticks with me on raising little kids taught me so much. So, for instance, in a young child, if they are frustrated because maybe someone has their toy, instead of kind of trying to hammer them and saying, hey, stop it, stop these behaviors, it's not okay. Learning to really empathize with them. I bet you're really hurting because Jimmy took your toy. Oh, that's your favorite toy, isn't it? I bet that makes you feel sad.
Jay Halliday:And really helping young children, you know, put words to those emotions that they're feeling, can really bond and bring trust that you're there for them. And as long as they get that out, then they can move forward right. So anyway, there's just good luck for anybody with four-year-olds. You know it's not an easy stage. My kids are past that now. It's not always an easy stage and I always say too, kids should be uh, the, they should be fbi hostage negotiators like you're trying to negotiate with the child.
Brandon Mulnix:They're so good, it's so hard yeah, one of the best tips that I was ever given was actually um brian fretwell. He was a guest on the podcast last season and he talks about asking really good questions. I've brought this up probably a couple of times on the podcast because I've seen it work. I've seen this change, how questions change relationships, and so when you ask your kid, hey, how was your day, what do they say?
Jay Halliday:Good or nothing, whatever, you know not much. But if you ask your kid, hey, what's your day? What do they say?
Brandon Mulnix:Good or nothing, whatever, Not much. But if you ask your kid, hey, what was a win today or what was something you were proud of today, they will go into an incredible story about something they're proud of that maybe their teacher didn't see or maybe their teacher told them that they did a good job. People will tell you when you ask that question. Well, what does the person value asking the question? If you just say how was your day? Is it just a quick hey, is that a platitude? To say hey, how was your day? You know hey, yep, good, and you walk away.
Brandon Mulnix:But if I ask you that tougher question oh, dad cares about my wins today, it's positive, it's a win and we talk about kids. We talk about kids, we talk about relationships, but it's also your relationships with your team. It's not much different. Because if you talk to your team member and say, hey, what was a win today or what was a win this week that maybe I didn't see because we work remote, it's awesome what they share with you and you connect on a completely different level than just saying, hey, how was your day?
Jay Halliday:Or did you get your work done? And I would even say, that's not just for kids. Ask your colleagues that, ask your friends, ask your parents. That I think it really leans into that personal relationship. People realize you really care.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, when is the last time you asked your parent hey dad, what's a win? Hey mom, what's a win today? Or what made you proud this week? And instead of going over to your parents sitting there I don't visit my parents nearly enough, but it's like, hey, what's going on with the entire family? What do you care about? I care about what my mom and dad's wins are, what their moments are, and so, yeah, when you talk about your colleagues, ask your boss.
Brandon Mulnix:It it's called managing up no-transcript. When they're at the top of the company, if you're especially the higher level you get very rarely do you get a chance to be asked what a win is. Think of the CEO. Well, who do they report to other than the people? And the people on the team usually aren't going to say, hey, boss, what was your win this week? Or what are you proud of, what did you bring value to the company at? They never ask him that because that's his job to ask them, it's their job to show off to the company, kind of thing. Well, it's important. Ask your boss, hey, what was the win this week?
Jay Halliday:And watch their expression, because very rarely have they ever been asked that question. You probably draw some of their passion for the company and it helps break that kind of that surface barrier right. Just to take that relationship one step deeper.
Brandon Mulnix:Especially if you've got a negative person, if you're working with a negative person all the time to ask that question hey, what was a win this week? Or hey, what did something that went right this week? And you don't have to tell them, man, all you do is complain. Don't tell them that, because that'll just make them complain. But make them complain. But you say, hey, you want to change the tone. You go hey, what was something that went right this week? Oh well, I wasn't late for work today. Okay, that's a win.
Jay Halliday:I don't know, at some point too, I mean, what you're talking about and this is a really tough part of leadership is on your team. You got to get the right person in the right seat in the bus and sometimes you got to share someone with the competition. That's my favorite way to say it right Share someone with the competition. So I mean invest in a negative Nancy, but I don't know, maybe they're not fit for your team. Right, the 80-20 principle? Right? If all of your 80% of your time is just working on some really low performance, maybe you should share them with the competition.
Brandon Mulnix:Well, I will share a different perspective on that is, a lot of folks don't really know what the expectations of their bosses are and unless the boss really does give the expectation of culture, and for example, if that person's complaining all the time and the boss just keeps asking the same question over and over again and keeps getting the complaint and doesn't change the hey, I want this to be a positive work environment. So they ask positive, directed questions that get them to talk about the wins and talk about the challenges that they've overcome, instead of just the I want to call them opportunities but the problems that irritate them. We talk about changing tones of words and all that stuff, but again, it's getting people aligned with your culture in that If you give them every opportunity there, I'm absolutely sure that they may not be on the right seat on the bus. But talk about that bus principle a little bit more. How have you seen that principle work about making sure people are the right seat on the bus?
Jay Halliday:Yeah, you know there's so many different studies that people can take. There is one that I particularly like called StrengthsFinders. You ever heard of that by chance? Yeah, oh yeah. So StrengthsFinder, it's another assessment. You know, there's like 34 strengths and it'll give you your top five and the idea is that you don't want to know the rest of them or the bottom five, because that's what you focus on. You really want to focus on what, what the Lord put in, in a sense, and it's it's kind of that idea.
Jay Halliday:Here's a really good principle is if you have a child that comes home and has a you, what does the parent focus on? That D has to get up. Instead, that StrengthsFinder principle is going hey, this looks like an area that's really tough for you. You're probably never going to be good at it, irrespective of how much you pour into it. Look at these two A's over here. How can we double down on these A's? How can we utilize your talents here more? And it's a very upside down principle, essentially so getting some idea or self-awareness of your personal character and the natural talents that you have in your heart. So it could be StrengthsFinders. There's Disc Analysis, there's Myers-Briggs, there's a whole pile of them, but just really understanding self. And then how do you apply that to your work?
Jay Halliday:Sometimes, it is true, there are jobs that you might hate, that others might love. I know it sounds crazy because you're like I really don't enjoy doing this. How could anybody enjoy doing this? But some people do so rearranging the pieces so that people fall into the items that they're naturally good at and that they enjoy, and so everybody is filled with. I guess we call them green cards, let's say. Now you of course, might have some red cards, some things that you just have to do, right? I mean, I got to submit my expenses every month. It's not that fun. I don't think anybody can do it for me. So there are some of these items, but on a large part, if you can arrange all the people in your team that they're executing on their natural talents, I think it'll lift the whole team further.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, in our company we use principle through EOS or Entrepreneur Operating System, but it's called get it, want it and have the capacity to do it. Let's say a maintenance guy and he gets it. He's got great problem-solving skills and he could do this job in his sleep. Let's get it, want it. Well, maybe that maintenance guy the role that you put him in is in a supervisory role where he does not want to do evaluations, he doesn't want to build on the company culture. So maybe the want it's not there, but the capacity to do it. You've got these great people. They want to do it, but they're so overwhelmed with everything on their plate that they have no capacity to actually get it done. It's like, okay, your capacities is just not there. So you evaluate we do this on a quarterly basis where every team member goes quickly. Can you see anything that changes their get it, want it or have the capacity to do it? And if any of those are a no, they become something to discuss. Is it the role has changed or evolved, which happens to jobs? It happens all the time where life happens outside and all of a sudden the job continues on and life changed and maybe they don't have the capacity to do it anymore. Maybe they don't have the want it to do it anymore. It's not that they're a bad fit for your company, but the role that you're asking them to do doesn't work for them anymore. So, as a leader, you have a couple of choices. Do you change the role, make it more fit for what their skill set is meaning their natural abilities or do you find a different role for them or create a different role within the company? Because we don't want to lose talent. We never want to lose people that have a great cultural fit, but if they don't want the role they're in, you're never going to see them as an A player in that role, and it shows up in so many different ways. You set a project goal and a few years go by and they still haven't hit that goal, and you're like what's keeping you from doing it? Oh, do you need to go to classes? You need to learn how to do it? No, I know how to do it. Oh, you don't want to do it. Yeah, I don't want to do it. Okay, well then, maybe that's not the goal for them, or maybe this isn't the role, especially if that's going to take your company much, much farther forward, and it's fair assessment of everybody.
Brandon Mulnix:I look at myself and it's a constant self-assessment of do I get the job I'm in, do I have the capacity to do the job I'm in, or do I have the want to do the job I'm in, especially as now that I'm in a higher level of leadership where if I'm not an A player in my role, I shouldn't be here. I mean, I'm a detriment to the company and most people don't have enough self-awareness. They're just thinking, well, this is my job. I've been here for 30 years, I deserve this job Well, but if you don't have the want it to get it or the capacity to do it, maybe you're holding the company back.
Brandon Mulnix:Maybe you'd actually like a lower role where you're not having 20 reports or you're not having this mundane admin stuff that you're responsible for. That you just. I go back to the paramedic world. Taking the best paramedics out there and making the managers was the worst decision that most people could make, and it happened all the time. It was like, yeah, the best paramedic doesn't mean they're the best manager, because you're literally tying them down with administrative tasks and that's usually what paramedics are not that great at doing yeah, so I you say that, I mean I think a lot of things when you say that, but when you, when you said that, one just there that reminds me sometimes in our industry too.
Jay Halliday:This is kind of for anybody working in well in birds in our industry. But with animals, what I often find, unfortunately, is that veterinarians, who are the most valuable people, are bogged down in paperwork. Right, you're absolutely overwhelmed and sitting in their office doing paperwork and I'm thinking, man, these are the people that should be on with the birds, right, these are the people that add the most value.
Brandon Mulnix:There's definitely some truth to that If you're looking across the industry, there's a lot of people that have evolved in their roles, that the thing that they went to school for they're passionate about, they're no longer doing because they're bogged down by administrative tasks that, honestly, you take away their talent. So if you look out at your team, this is directly to you audience. If you look out at your team and you find somebody that man, they were a rock star and now they're not. Did you promote it out of them? I mean, that's a great question Are they in the right role? Would they be better off back in their old role where they were happiest? And that's your job as a leader to evaluate that with your team all the time.
Jay Halliday:Yeah, you know, a fundamental tenet of servant leadership is, instead of, let's say, telling your people what to do, you ask the question is there any barriers that I can remove for you? Right, so, as the leader, you want to set the vision. Very important. Hey, here's the end zone. You have to have boundaries. Hey, this is out of bounds. So we need to get this ball to that end zone. You never watch an NFL game with the coach with his headset runs on and plays the quarterback. You want to teach and train and encourage your people, but the question is, if they have the goal right, they have to understand the purpose. Is there any barrier that I can remove for you? You want to liberate or free them up to go do their best work.
Brandon Mulnix:It's a great question to ask. It's usually the question I get to start with. It's easier to say, hey, what can I change in this to make you more successful, and it's amazing. A lot of times I'll say no, there's nothing that you can do for me. I'm like, okay, then what do you need to change? This doesn't work with a spouse as well, you know. It goes back to the what do I need to change to make this very successful. But there's some truth in it, though. If it's real and you say, hey, what can I change? Or what can I the barriers I can take, and how much people grow from that and just connect, because that is your role as a coach. You're right, they're not on the field at all.
Jay Halliday:I really feel like in relationships. The two key principles of maintaining a relationship are humility, which we should talk about, and communication. Right, I mean communication first to say all the things right, but if you're struggling with something, to say, hey, I need this in this relationship, and then the other person has to bring the humility to say, wow, okay, you're right, I'm willing to make this change, you're willing to do something different. Communication and humility. Humility, I'll tell you, since we're talking about leadership journey and my personal journey, I never knew that the word humility existed until I was about 30 years old, which is really sad. There are a few things you know.
Jay Halliday:Of course, all of us like to jump in the time machine and change some things, but if I could go back and hit myself over the head with a two by four and just draw the word humility on my forehead, I would. It's been a journey for me again, somewhere around 30, to just continue to understand that and grow with that. What does humility mean? A lot of different ways to describe it. My favorite way is humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less, right. So not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less and putting others first, lifting others up.
Brandon Mulnix:And where did you see that biggest struggle in the pre 30 year J?
Jay Halliday:Such a good question. My first thought went to I learned something about myself. I'm an eternal optimist and someone had said, hey, optimists are always late and I thought oh because the issue is, as optimists, we think we can fit everything in.
Jay Halliday:Like you've got a 15 minute drive and you have to get in the car and you're trying to pack and I can do this and this and this and this and this, and then you know you only got 10 minutes to get there and then you end up being five minutes late because you thought you could pack in so many things before you had to jump in the car and get there. In a sense, that was my whole life. I mean, I just packed in everything, I thought I could fit everything in right, and it ended up being a little bit the Jay show in a sense, right when I was, it was about me. It was about me essentially, man. I can't tell you how much that's flipped on its head Now.
Jay Halliday:This weekend I drove six, seven hours to help a guy move for a day and then drive back. It's like how can I serve, how can I help Right, being available for others, listening, being really receptive. Brandon, I think your faith is really important to you. It's been huge, huge part of my life. And so there's a verse I have it right in front of me John 3.30 that says he must become greater, I must become less. It's my new favorite verse and I think all the time. If there was less Jay and more Jesus, right, how much better would the world be. Just the characteristics of being really patient and really present for people and really caring and really listening. You go through all those things like man. If those things were more and my ego was less, it would just be better. We can join each other on the journey and encourage each other and put humility first.
Brandon Mulnix:So what flipped the switch? I mean, was there a moment, was there a situation, was there a mistake? What flipped that?
Jay Halliday:switch for you? Certainly some mistakes. I probably first jumped on it, though, in the servant leadership principles and even what we talked about, that coach approach. When someone comes in your office with a problem, instead of saying, yeah, I know the answer, I know all the things right, this is what's right. Do this. To just have the humility and just take a breath and say, all right, what do you think? How can I support you? You're important. Yeah, I would say probably. There, I mean, let's not totally gloss it over I've certainly made some mistakes in my life that I wish.
Brandon Mulnix:I could go back and sprinkle some humility in there. You are speaking to the choir as well. I mean, it's taken me a long way 46 years to get to this version of me. There are many versions along the way that weren't so humble, that weren't so giving Periods of I mean years of focused on self instead of being selfless. And it takes moments, it takes things to happen. It takes feedback from others before you go oh crap, whether that's your spouse, parents, friends that say, yeah, I don't like that version, don't like that version at all. And it takes growth. It takes those moments because so many people go well, that's their problem and don't realize that, nope, if they're willing to give you that feedback, that is your problem and you should probably listen.
Jay Halliday:Yeah, that's the humility part, if people are willing to give that feedback, that communication we're talking about, really to receive that. But so you mentioned relationship. I'll just say this to anybody with a significant other, I think, natural tendencies Okay, I'm just kind of painting a larger picture, but we sometimes, as men, view things different. I'll give you something from my own personal relationship.
Jay Halliday:Putting work first, I thought, was putting the family first. What do I mean? I thought that the best thing I could do for my family lift up my family, family's the priority, family's first, I thought, was work and provide. I think that's just our natural tendencies as men. We want to provide. So I'm saying, hey, I'm putting the family first by working. And then a spouse might say, no, you're being selfish, you're putting your career and your life and your desires first and the family is on the back burner. And in all honesty, she's probably right. But you can see how just those different viewpoints come at an entirely different perspective and that's where it takes that humility to say, wow, I see it from your perspective. You're right.
Brandon Mulnix:I'm willing to make some change. I agree with you when it comes to the way man was designed as a species, going back to the creation. It's okay, man is there to provide and it's just in our DNA. There's Maslow's hierarchy of needs and it's security and it's our basic food needs and our basic needs of of anything, and it's just the way we grew up, our culture. I mean, I looked at my dad. He was an amazing hard worker and I thought, man, if I could be just as successful as he can be is if he does that, if I do that, and put in those hours.
Brandon Mulnix:But it's also what is the needs of relationship, acceptance and love. And when you put yourself out there, you know facing in the direction of work, sometimes you're turning your back on those other needs within even your kids. They need dad for certain periods until they turn about 13 and know everything. It's so important that we do both. It's not and or or. We still have to be in our minds, find our purpose, go after that purpose with the same concept of also supporting those around us and having that awareness of hey, how is my desire to go? Do this affecting their needs, what they need from me, and it's a balancing game.
Brandon Mulnix:Everybody has a different deck of cards. People have different struggles, people have different needs, people value things differently. That's the whole thing about the relationship is working through all that and making sure that both needs are met while still being who we are as people, without completely sacrificing our identities as well, because that's the opposite. That's when people totally are given everything they got and never actually care for themselves, and I know a couple folks that that's the season they're in where they've literally expounded themselves for everybody else. They're selfless, but they have nothing left to give and they're unhealthy because they've just yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Jay Halliday:And they say no to themselves. The airplane oxygen mask theory right, it's like you got to put your oxygen mask out first if you want to be able to help others.
Brandon Mulnix:But I don't have time for that.
Jay Halliday:Yeah, you got to have boundaries. You really do. I heard you say that you had a good role model in your dad. Do you have a good relationship with your old man?
Brandon Mulnix:Oh yeah, oh yeah, he's proud of me, he tells me I'm proud, he's proud of me all the time, he's a big fan of the show, listens, listens to the show and you know just, it's cool. It's one of those things where, when I was a young punk, I always wanted to grow up. I want to make more money than my dad, not having a clue that inflation would have probably made that happen, you know pretty easily. But the idea was I want to provide a better life for my family than my dad did. Just as a goal, you know to say, hey, my dad did good, he worked really hard as an electrician. How can I take that to that next level? And so I did have a great role model with my dad and it's yeah, yeah, that's just that's been the huge thing.
Jay Halliday:My dad too. He's my best friend and he's been my greatest role model. I think this world could be a better place if we had more good dads. I really do it, that's probably I've got a huge soft spot for that and just being role models. And hey, legacy is real, Legacy is really real. Right, you hear like that doesn't quite have that relationship and an encouragement to anybody that's a father, to think about legacy.
Brandon Mulnix:You know, Jay, I'm going to expound on that. I think every man has the capability of being a father, even if it's not to their own kids.
Jay Halliday:And.
Brandon Mulnix:I say that because there are so many people that their kids grow up and they move away and they just feel like abandoned in a way. But there's so many younger people that they can have that same influence on of being a dad that maybe didn't have a good dad situation or maybe their dad died, maybe they're in that gap. But as human beings it's okay to be a fatherly figure to people older people than you. Sometimes, I mean again, we go back to servant leadership and giving of ourselves, and that doesn't mean just to our kids, our employees, it means to the world. I mean there's no boundaries that we were set on. I mean there's no rule book, there's no guidelines. It's like, no, you're called to serve. Well, how do I serve to everybody within boundaries? Yeah, yeah.
Jay Halliday:Yeah, that actually reminds me of a long distant memory of a Wednesday night youth group. I remember I kind of want to do whatever I want to do, whatever I want to do. And I remember this really strong mentor of mine, one of the youth pastors there, saying, hey, you don't realize, but all these little kids around you, I mean they're, they're just a couple of years younger, they all look up to you. It's like what do you mean? I'm living my that to me as a leader, I'm just saying for all men that we're speaking to now, all the people around you in your sphere, those listening to this, they're looking up to you.
Brandon Mulnix:So you are that role model Very well put, I find myself being a little fatherly to younger guys coming into the company, taking them under your wing. You know, we just had a conversation with a young man the other day a couple of us guys at the company and you know he just got his acceptance letter to a big university and we're going to miss the crap out of this young talent. But it's like, hey, have you thought of these things? These are all good things and we're so proud of you, but have you thought of these things? Doesn't matter, doesn't change our opinion, but have you thought of these things? Because if you've thought of them, great, if you haven't, just at least take time to think about them. You know what I mean, because you don't want to tell somebody what to do, but, again, as a father, it's to guide them. It's to have them learn from maybe something that you experienced, and that's the same is true for work, as it is in your family.
Brandon Mulnix:You want to guide your kids. You want to guide your team. Use your life experience. It's okay to be vulnerable. If you've been in jail, it's okay to talk about. Hey, I made some mistakes, I went to jail, and you know what. I've grown from it, because I'm going to respect that person way more than if I found out 20 years down the road that I've been with them and they've never been that vulnerable for me to say, you know, because they're so embarrassed about their story.
Brandon Mulnix:It's like we all have stories. We all have grown, live it, use it as part of your story, not as a bad thing, but something that you've overcome. That, to me, is so important is to be real and transparent with your team, your kids and you know, at the right time, share the right information. It's not the walk in the door and go yeah, I'm a convicted felon, no, no, no, no, no. Exactly, you know it's. It's share the right story, share what you've overcome and it's okay, you've got. It's your story and that's the reason this podcast exists is because of stories of people overcoming things, people sharing their hearts and their visions and and also, you know, like your, passion for leadership. So, Jay, I'm going to kind of try to close this in here a little bit. If I'm a new person getting into this industry and I'm in sales or some support of our farmers, what advice do you have for me?
Jay Halliday:Well, first, off, everybody is a leader. My description for leadership is influence, and so you, as a human, human, you are influencing the people around you. Undoubtedly, you know you people say like you are the product of the five influencers around you, right? Whether that's books and podcasts or humans, for sure. So already you are a leader, you are influencing. I like to say, start with the end in mind, and so I think, if I'm speaking to that person individually right now, think about both your character, who you want to be, and then your career aspirations. A really good mental exercise is to think about having a funeral today and your loved ones are all around you and imagine just kind of being in the room listening to what they're saying about your character, about your person, right, they're all standing up sharing an anecdote about
Jay Halliday:you. Are they sharing the things that you want them to share? Maybe? If so, double down. You're doing great. If not, have that humility to look inside and make that personal change. So that would be the first one, and that can be the same. The career aspirations too. I mean just people talking about some of the wonderful things that you did for the industry or humanity, or however big your aspirations are, you know, are you on the track to, to do that and develop that? That'd probably one. Brandon, you said the word vulnerability. I think that's great, also for a young person coming in here be vulnerable. The people in the poultry industry are awesome people, you know.
Jay Halliday:If anybody came to me or came to you, brandon said hey, I'm new to this industry. Could you help plug me in? We've got Peak coming up here. This will probably launch before Peak, which is a poultry show. If anybody came to my booth and said I'm new here, would you walk me around? What an honor. How neat would that be to walk around and share right? Or ask the same question that you asked hey, I'm new here. What are some things that I really need to learn? Can you help shorten my learning curve here? Absolutely, all of us are willing to invest, but you got to reach out. You have to take that initiative and show some vulnerability.
Brandon Mulnix:No, thank you. This is an incredible industry. That's why this podcast exists is for this industry, for the great people in this industry. If I didn't think that they were amazing people, there's no way that I would take this time to do a podcast for them. You know what I mean. It would be like, no, not worth it. But this is. This is why I get giddy to have interviews with folks. I get giddy to talk about really, really tough topics that I'm starting to see after being in the industry for a while, starting to see people open up and be vulnerable and to show that, hey, we're not a bunch of tough guys in the industry. We're actually a big family and people fall, people stumble and we're going to all learn from from the adventure. So, Jay, I know we didn't have nearly enough time of us talking about.
Jay Halliday:We didn't talk about, yeah, the industry vaccines.
Brandon Mulnix:We'll call it. Consider this episode one of the Jay and Brandon podcast and we will bring him back on to talk more about the industry issues. But, man, what you brought for leadership today was so, so incredible. Thank you for being a guest on the show today.
Jay Halliday:Thank you, Brandon. I'm so proud of you for putting this together. This is fun.
Brandon Mulnix:Hey podcast listeners. This podcast wouldn't be possible without Prism Controls it's my plug for their advertising, but they do invest a lot in this podcast through the opportunities that they give me and just their value and what they appreciate about the industry they're here to serve. They have a selfless. They give more than probably what they ever should or what's ever expected of them, and that's our values. Again, it's all about giving. It's all about caring about the industry. Use Again, it's all about giving. It's all about caring about the industry. So please check out Prism Controls on Facebook, linkedin website, prismcontrolscom, and if you found this show valuable, please share it, like it, subscribe, just to make sure that you get all the future episodes and with that, have a great day.
