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
Money Matters: The Financially Healthy Leader
When financial stress grips your mind, everything suffers - your health, your relationships, and especially your leadership. This revealing conversation with Matt Paradise takes us from his remarkable journey through teen homelessness and addiction to becoming a respected financial wellness expert who now helps leaders build healthier financial futures.
The statistics are startling: 57% of employees report that financial worries steal hours of productivity each week. One-third experience PTSD-like symptoms from money stress. As leaders, our financial struggles don't just affect us - they ripple through our entire teams, influencing decisions, workplace culture, and bottom-line results.
Paradise shares how financial health goes far beyond spreadsheets and budgets. It's deeply emotional, connected to our earliest experiences with money and our core values. For leaders in high-pressure industries like poultry production, where operational challenges and thin margins are commonplace, financial stress can lead to short-sighted decisions that compromise long-term stability.
The conversation offers practical pathways toward greater financial wellness: creating space for "sober-minded" assessment of your financial reality, building community support systems, and modeling financial vulnerability with your team. Paradise emphasizes that you don't need to share every detail of your financial life, but acknowledging struggles and sharing lessons learned creates psychological safety for team members facing similar challenges.
Whether you're currently thriving financially or struggling to keep the lights on, this episode provides compassionate guidance for leaders who want to transform their relationship with money and create cultures where financial wellness becomes a shared priority. Remember - your team's financial health directly impacts your organization's success.
Listen now and discover why taking even one small step toward financial wellness today can transform your leadership effectiveness tomorrow. What financial habit could you change this week?
Learn more about Matt Paradise - https://www.mattparadise.com/
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, and on today's podcast we're going to be talking with Matt Paradise, and Matt and I we're going to be talking about finances, financial health, financial stress and ways, as a leader, you can be more healthy in that area. Now, this isn't your typical tithing sermon from church. I'm not asking for anything. I'm not asking you to give to anywhere if you are a leader of people, because you may not be struggling with your finances, but I guarantee someone that you lead, that is part of your team, is With that. I'd like to welcome Matt to the show. Matt, welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
Matt Paradise:Thank you so much, Brandon. It really is an honor to be here.
Brandon Mulnix:Matt, can you share with the listeners a little bit about who you are?
Matt Paradise:Sure, I am a guy who grew up in rural Connecticut farms and country. You can take the boy out of the country. I live in Boston now with my wife and family, but you can't take the country out of the boy. And for my wife, she grew up in and around the city and she always looks at me sideways sometimes with things that I do, because rural farmland is part of where I come from. Shout out to Valleyside Farm and the Youngs one of my best friends there in dairy farming.
Matt Paradise:But I grew up in Connecticut and have really a twisty, windy road to get to leadership. My background includes everything from teen homelessness where I left my family's house very young because of addiction and, through overdoses and a variety of different things, made a lot of poor choices and those poor choices helped form who I am today. So would I change that? That's a tough question, but I am grateful for the grace that I've received because I'm alive and it's been over 24 years sober and ultimately moved away from that life so that I could change. And anybody who's gone through addiction or challenging circumstances knows wherever we try to travel and get away from ourselves, we take all our baggage and personal character with us. So I had a lot of work to do and there's no such thing in my mind as a self-made person. I had a lot of mentors, a lot of people who helped guide me along the way, for whom I'm extremely grateful and ultimately was able to get a job at a place called American Consumer Credit Counseling.
Matt Paradise:It's a nonprofit agency who helps people manage their finances and get out of debt. I started there as a 19-year-old kid who had no idea what I was doing with my money. I got into credit card debt even as I was counseling other people to get out of debt, because money is so much more than dollars and cents. It's emotions. It's deep, deep feelings and circumstances and people that we're exposed to at an early age. So our values, our belief systems around money influence how we choose to spend it.
Matt Paradise:So that was work with, again, lots of mentors and help to be able to learn and grow, and eventually, as a high school dropout, was able to get a GED and take some college courses and get certifications so that I could teach others competently around money and personal finance, and now I serve on the board of that organization. I left that organization in 2018 to start my own business and speak because my wife and I had adopted a child and we had the need for more flexibility in our lives and was able to speak to different organizations to help their employees with financial stress, while still having flexibility to really care for what was most important in our lives our family and making sure that our son had everything that he needed, including our time and attention and mental capacity and all of those things as well. So I left American Consumer Credit Counseling and was invited to join the board of directors now and am able to help with the organization to really grow and serve more people throughout the country.
Brandon Mulnix:Matt your story from homelessness and addiction. It probably resonates really well with the community that we listen to. A lot of folks that I know that are in the farming community usually struggle. I mean, they're tasked with a lot of things, they have a really hard job and money is sometimes one of the biggest stresses. What does it mean to you when I talk about leaders being financially healthy?
Matt Paradise:I think there's a lot to that I write about in my book, about the concept of whole health wealth, the idea that the different domains of our well-being are inseparable. So when we think about our money, our finances, it's on the top of everybody's mind because in the society, in the world where we live, it's necessary to feed our families and put food on the table and try to run our businesses and really work and grow and be productive in our communities. Money is stressful and it affects our mental health. So there are lots of data and plenty of research that shows that the stresses that we feel and that our employees feel around money influence productivity directly. So the majority I mean the majority of the workforce, 57% to be precise of employees have reported that they have financial stress and it takes them hours out of their week of productivity thinking about how am I going to pay those bills.
Matt Paradise:I've worked on farms before. I've baled hay, I've shoveled fertilizer, and it is hard work, like you said, brandon. And when we have our thoughts thinking about the next thing and what we need to do and how I don't want to shovel fertilizer forever we start to weigh on our psyche. So our financial health and the financial health of those whom we lead affects not just mental health, but physical health as well. Data shows that when we stress about finances, sometimes about one-third of the population has felt PTSD-like symptoms as a result of the financial stress.
Matt Paradise:So the fight, flight, freeze, not sure what to do, like oh my, I have bills but not the money to pay them stresses people out incredibly so, and I know I've felt that Maybe others can relate, but I've felt that of I don't know where my next meal is going to come from. What is it that I need to do? And, out of desperation, ready to do almost anything just to get food in my stomach. And that's difficult, that's hard and that's something that so many people across the country, from coast to coast, are facing and struggle with. But with the question about that financial health, it's not just dollars and cents, though. It's that as well, making sure that we have what we need to pay for, but it's such an emotional and physical impact on our lives and well-being, but it's such an emotional and physical impact on our lives and well-being.
Brandon Mulnix:As you look at managers, leaders and I'm going to go back to that empathy piece understanding their team, understanding that, the struggles that they have, they're not alone. The leader's worried about money, maybe has poor habits around it, maybe his productivity is out. He's managing a team that's equally, or maybe even more, stressed about the same topic. How can a leader, I guess, lead in this area?
Matt Paradise:I would say. The first is by example. I mean, I know so many leaders that I've worked with and just because someone has a larger salary than somebody else doesn't necessarily mean that there's zero financial stress in their lives. Sometimes the opposite is true. As we have more money and more responsibilities that come with earning that money, then sometimes that stress starts to pile up.
Matt Paradise:And I don't know about anybody else, but I personally don't always deal with stress in the most productive way. Oftentimes that comes out to the people closest to me my wife, my son but we care for her mom as well as she lives with us. Sometimes it just comes out in just being a little bit too sharp, lacking love, care and compassion when all they're asking is for like, what are we going to do for dinner or some other otherwise inane thing. But because there's 10, 15 different processes going on in my mind about all the things that need to be done, my stress spills over to those around me and I think for leaders that can certainly be the case and it's a stressful time for many in our current economy.
Matt Paradise:In the poultry industry certainly, there's a significant labor shortage. There's significant recruitment retention factors that affect operations for many farms across the country, farms that friends of mine own and others that I've seen and when we start to get stressed, we tend not to make the wisest decisions for our future. Slowing down, being able to gather ourselves, collect ourselves and lead as a servant and by example the area of finances in this case with your question, brennan, I think is extremely powerful, and I don't want to underestimate how difficult and challenging that can be at times, because the stress is real. It's not that it just goes away because we don't want to feel stressed or don't have these other problems, because they're there. I just know personally that when I'm stressed and start to make decisions out of that stress, sometimes out of desperation, I tend not to have the outcomes that I'm looking for.
Brandon Mulnix:Yeah, I can feel that. I think stress and that sometimes makes us do things that we would not normally do. You know, looking for that quick, easy win versus that long-term gain, and I've seen that in business. Thankfully, I've experienced a lot in my life, matt. It's one of those things. I'm, you know, I had a different type of education growing up. My first two businesses went bankrupt, first one being a lawn mowing business right out of high school. Bought that lawnmower was going to mow those lawns and I didn't have the money to pay for the lawnmower Got repoed and away it went. Second one was another business. I had a photography studio where I 2009 hit, crashed, crashed around me and for some way I was able to work my way through it. And next thing I know, a few years later, I was able to actually sell a business for a profit the same business for a profit.
Brandon Mulnix:And it's just. You know, what you're challenged by in there is your core need of providing providing for your family, providing for your own needs. I have things I like to do. I like to eat out, I like to do all those things. When you can't do that, it starts to gnaw at you and adds a lot of stress on the marriage relationships and then, when that comes to work, yeah, sometimes people see their employees as a way to get their needs met and get things done and they get a profit out of that. And that's hard when you start to focus on that as your way of getting out of your debt and stuff like that. So, matt, we know the problem. Everybody can relate to the issue of money in some way. How do we walk our way out of it? How do we find freedom from unhealthy lifestyle?
Matt Paradise:Sure, I appreciate that. The first step and you alluded earlier, brandon, the challenge of addiction. It's real. I'm sure there's listeners that have never touched a drug in their lives and I have friends that back in the day we called it straight edge didn't touch drugs, alcohol, anything, and wouldn't put anything into their bodies that would ever corrupt it. I always thought that was amazing. I also saw that as personally, a journey that seemed impossible. I couldn't even comprehend it.
Matt Paradise:So the first step is to be sober-minded, and being sober-minded doesn't necessarily mean that there's a substance attached to it. For many there often is, but it doesn't have to be, because there are process addictions, whether it's gambling, whether it's getting into debt and fueling our whatever that it is our dreams, our aspirations, our goals, and it becomes compulsive to the point of irrational thought and behavior. Being sober-minded means to take a step back, collect not just our thoughts and our feelings but also really just, with a sober mind, assess the reality of our situation. Many of my challenges I've gotten into because I didn't have a sober judgment, even without using drugs or alcohol, but I didn't have the sober judgment, clear-mindedness, to make the best decision for my future. Sometimes that comes through lack of hope when we lack hope for a better world or better future. And oftentimes debt can come about out of the best intentions. We want to feed our family, we want to help our employees, we want to grow our business to be bigger and better and help our economy and our community and the friends and family and people who we love. And sometimes that starts a process in our minds to do anything to make that happen, because it's out of our good heartedness as well To stop and soberly assess our situation and whatever that it is.
Matt Paradise:And I know in 2024, farm debt at agricultural banks increased by 7%. By 7% In the credit counseling business, I would speak to people often with cash flow challenges and the most credit card debt unsecured credit card debt was around $500,000. And that's on top of equipment loans or property loans or other farm debt or things like that. And oftentimes when the debt gets that large, it's because it's trying to make it through a hurdle and there's so many variables and factors in farming that often are beyond our control. When there's a natural disaster, I can't control that, but it certainly affects, whether it's the cost of feed or we can run down the list trying to be sober-minded through those things. I find that challenging. Maybe others can relate.
Matt Paradise:So to take a moment and sometimes get other help from people, whether it's trusted friends, advisors, people in our lives who can help us with a clear mind. Look at all of the debt, all of the income, all of the expenses, and this can be on the business side as well as our personal side. We talked about earlier, brandon, the idea of leading by example. Even in our personal lives I've seen plenty of businesses that are doing phenomenally and one of the reasons why they're doing so well is because the owners aren't necessarily taking a salary or a salary that's adequate to cover their expenses and a fair wage.
Matt Paradise:Essentially, I mean thinking outside of even just the farm industry, I mean physicians. Across the country there are many who have all this debt and paying their employees and just that monthly nut, the overhead stress, just to feed their families and don't have enough of a salary to pay the bills. So it's important, with a clear mind, to sit down and that could mean something different for everybody. Sometimes it's the external help, Sometimes it's just maybe getting away, stepping away from the stresses of day-to-day life, because it's so easy and farming and other industries too but to be working in the business and not have time to work on the business and on ourselves. So I would say that's step one.
Brandon Mulnix:So realizing there's a problem is step one. Not putting our head in the sand, not pretending that tomorrow will be sunshine and rainbows because today was cloudy and rain, but to actually identify that there's a problem. So for someone who, okay, I need help, I'm willing to get help. Where do they turn?
Matt Paradise:to, I would say that it's a very personal decision and I'll clarify that it's not dodging the answer, which, okay, Matt, thanks, that's not helpful. When I think about dealing with personal finances, it's important to keep it personal. It's a little bit different than business finances. When we get into accounting, there's the numbers, there's the dollars and cents. Who cares about the feelings? Bills have to be paid. When it comes to our personal finances, there's a lot more feelings, emotion, thoughts, attitudes, values all of the above. That's not just ourselves, but our families.
Matt Paradise:My wife and I are a partnership and we make decisions together and many of the decisions I make she would not make. I'm the emotional one in our relationship. She is analytical, she's a biochemist and everything like data, numbers, spreadsheets. That's just how she thinks. She doesn't have to try and we're different. The power of that is that when we come together to face a problem, we address it from different perspectives and it's far more powerful and we have better outcomes together than individually. So when I say personal what the first step is or what the next best step is and I think that's important when we can't see the full staircase in front of us and where the clear path is, we just take the next best step, and for some that might be getting help with a drug addiction or drinking and I don't say that lightly, as I shared, as listeners now know that that's part of my background. I know what it's like to overdose. I know what it's like to want to change and, as Paul says, even the good I want to do, I try and I can't and I'm pulled right back down into the same old patterns and by my own power I know that I wasn't able to do it. I needed people For me. That was a Bible-based drug recovery program and I had a mentor that cared enough about me, that didn't let me just sink deeper into the depressive, deep, dark hole of addiction that I was living in for years, but cared enough about me to show a better way and that made all the difference.
Matt Paradise:So for others, maybe it's figuring out what the different vice is. Maybe it's tuning out the world in front of the television. We don't typically think of that as an addiction, but so many friends that I've seen and at times I've felt as well, the compulsion to say life is tough. Forget this. Let me go watch another episode of fill in the blank. Whatever your thing is. Maybe it's gambling and gambling doesn't necessarily mean showing up at the casino, but even taking unnecessary risks and feeling the compulsion to do so quote unquote, betting the farm. For others, maybe it's a relational thing and working through anger.
Matt Paradise:I've dealt with some different illness and things like that in my life and it's common with significant illness to feel the need to control everything and every outcome, Because through illness for me it was bile duct cancer but through illness, every control, every possible control, is taken away from us. I coded on the table in 2021, and I couldn't control whether I lived or whether I died. It was in the hands of my God, it was in the hands of the doctors whom he sent and ultimately that takes just incredible surrender. That doesn't come easy to me, and it doesn't come easy to many of my friends who are leaders either, because it's our job and responsibility oftentimes to keep things under control, because families rely on us, it's people, and the decisions that we make affect people and the community and the ones that we love and want to see do well also. So sometimes it's seeing those character traits within ourselves that might need to grow, and maybe it's whether it's anger, whether it's we can fill in the blank for each one, and that's why I say it's personal, because, brandon, my things are different than your things and for every single listener that's listening to us today, their things are different than ours, and that's just how life is. That's part of the power of community when we lead, it's not leading in a bubble, but it's relying on neighbors.
Matt Paradise:I know one of the most incredible things actually that happened this winter a friend of mine from high school, his family farm. He runs it now. It burned down Well, not the whole farm, large barn burned down and that's expensive and it wasn't something that he planned for and he reached out to the community to ask for help. This was it happened to be a dairy farm, but it was time to milk the cows, and the cows don't wait, the cows don't think. Well, there's a farm. Let me just hold on to my help. Farming doesn't work that way. Chickens wait on no one. When it's time to lay those eggs, it's time to lay those eggs, no matter what we think, feel or what's going on around.
Matt Paradise:So what was incredible about it? Obviously not the fire, but the fact that community rallied around him, because there just happened to be one particular person that was in the neighborhood fixing it. And we're in New England, so there's like one company that fixes this particular piece of legacy equipment because some of it's just generational, it's been on the farm for a long time and they keep it running because it works better than a lot of the new stuff. Sometimes, anyway, but sometimes it's challenging to fix. So it just so happened the timing worked out that this person who knew this piece of equipment was there and could fix it, and a neighboring farm offered their milking parlor, so it was actually the milking parlor that burned down, so they were able to transport the cows with other people in the community to this milking power to still be able to milk the cows, and the way that the community rallied together was truly inspiring. Shout out, matt Peckham.
Matt Paradise:So when we think about the challenges that we go through and I know that so many already do a lot of this stuff they rely on each other. But community is powerful when it comes to our personal growth as well. It's just as powerful to be able to ask trusted advisors, to be able to ask those who are around us. What do you think? Is this a wise financial decision? Does this make rational sense, will these choices financially lead me to the goal and outcome that I desire? And obviously everybody has a plan, until they're punched in the face and plans go up in smoke, sometimes literally. But that doesn't mean that we stop planning. We plan and God determines our footsteps, and we take it one day at a time. But that doesn't mean we abandon all plans. It does mean that with many advisors, our plan is much more likely to succeed.
Brandon Mulnix:So, Matt, I'm hearing you talk a lot about community not doing it alone. You've identified, you've got a financial problem. You identified that maybe there's an addiction that could be. You missed a bunch of them that affected me over the years food, living, you know, buying something just so I could keep up with my friends, especially hobbies. As a guy, I always had to have the best hunting stuff because I thought it was going to give me the next big buck and I would spend all kinds of money on that stuff, and yet I was putting me in debt, justifying it by good lean venison. It's costing me way more than just going by the beef down at the store. So you talk about the community side, getting others involved as we look at the leader, the person that maybe it's not them that's going through this, maybe it's somebody else. How do you approach somebody that you're leading and offer help without offending, so to speak?
Matt Paradise:That's a delicate balance. I think you mentioned the word earlier, brandon compassion, being able to have compassion and empathy, understanding that those we lead are struggling. It's a matter of what it is that they're struggling with and that's just a reality of human nature. So, being approachable, so that we create an environment of conversation and that's not easy, that takes time that's a culture, because I don't know, I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes, but you mentioned a couple that resonated with me and as a guy, I don't want to need to ask for help. I don't want to have this culture of kumbaya. Let's just talk it out. That's personally not me. I have many friends that do. I've needed to continue my growth. I can't say that I've fully grown, but continue my growth so that I can lead with vulnerability, so that I can share what's happening.
Matt Paradise:Brandon, your story of getting a lawnmower and starting a business and the excitement, the exhilaration that comes with that and then the heartbreaking, soul-crushing aspect of bankruptcy that took that away, and not once, but twice. So there's a good chance for listeners who lead and have employees that their employees also have aspirations, whether it's to have a lawn mowing business, or maybe it's to grow in the poultry business and eventually maybe even have their own plot of land and be able to grow a business. But employees have aspirations and dreams and when we, as leaders, empower our employees and leading with vulnerability, well then one, those employees aren't going to just leave faster to go start their dream Because, as anybody who's in a farming business knows that, it doesn't just happen overnight. You don't automatically say, well, I'm done, I don't need this paycheck because I'm in the money. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes perseverance, it takes lots of stumbling.
Matt Paradise:So knowing and understanding that and nurturing employees for the long term so that they can even work towards and grow towards their own dreams, goals, aspirations and maybe even build their own thing. It's not a competition in that case, but it's being able to reach behind us as leaders and give people a handout Not necessarily a handout. It doesn't mean that everybody just needs higher paychecks and more money, but what they need is our compassion, our empathy and understanding and sometimes just help from the lessons that we've learned. Brandon, you sharing again just some of your financial struggles and lessons that you've learned through that is powerful for others, because others are in that position where you were 20, 30, whatever years ago, and similarly for me. I've gone through lots of different challenges and trials and struggles and made plenty of mistakes, and it's out of those mistakes that I've been able to learn and I can now and have the pleasure of teaching and working with others.
Brandon Mulnix:It's interesting. You talk about getting to know your team, getting to know your team members to know your team, getting to know your team members, dreams, aspirations, desires, struggles. There's a delicate balance between too much information at work and a relationship with the person. We spend more hours with the people we work with than we typically do our family in a week, and understanding the struggles that they have really, you know, in my past has really helped me understand how I can best lead them, as I've had folks that you know had visions for such grander ideas and just needed a little bit of a hey, I'm behind you, I'm supporting you and they're like, but why would you support me when, if I do that, that means I'm behind you? I'm supporting you and they're like, but why would you support me when, if I do that, that means I'm leaving the company and it's like well, my investment's not in you for the company, my investment's in you for the rest of your life. I want you to be a better person, I want you to grow, I want you to learn from even my mistakes. Sharing my story allows them to understand that it's not just vulnerability, but it's hey, what did you learn? How can I keep you from that Making the same mistakes I made, and I guess it just helps relate to them as humans and you're working together.
Brandon Mulnix:My big thing is when I look at my team and I see their successes, it really makes me happy. I like to see when they get a new vehicle, when they, you know, talk about their kid going off and playing travel sports, because I know how expensive that is. I had kids in travel sports, but the idea is, as a leader, it's I get to win when they win, and that is truly important to me, because I know that there's other jobs that always pay more. That's not the always answer. I know that there's jobs that probably have more flexible hours. There's jobs that would meet some of their needs better than what I can, as a leader, offer them.
Brandon Mulnix:But ultimately, I want to make sure they feel that I'm alongside of them, I'm partnering with them. I have their career in mind, I have their family's livelihood in mind, because that all will keep them growing and prospering in many ways like that, and so that's always been important for me figuring out ways to help keep supporting even the local community, different things, just because I know how blessed I've been in life. It's like how can I continue to bless others with that and that's a lot of that's just through sharing experiences Like, for example, this podcast. So, matt, what resources are there out there to help people that they're not? You know, they don't just leave this podcast and and go and have to again hunt for more resources. What have you got for them?
Matt Paradise:Sure, there's a lot for sure, and it can be challenging and sometimes overwhelming. I want to just add to that point that last point that you made, brandon, I think is critically important. There's there's so much more that can be explored there. I think it's one of the paradoxical things about creating culture where people want to stay and that when they do stay, it's not necessarily about just earning the higher paycheck. I do believe that loyalty does exist. I do believe that creating that culture of we'll call it reciprocity, but the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats, the idea that we help each other and we can all learn and grow and be better as people, but in a lot of different ways, whatever the metrics are that we use, I think it also talks and gets even into succession planning. For many farmers and friends that I've grown up around, succession planning is always on minds, and this goes beyond just the poultry business, but across the board. For any leader who runs or owns a business, succession planning is critical and I've spent a lot of time working with boards of directors on this recently because it's critical. Something happens to the key person and there's not a succession plan. Everything just falls apart. There is no paycheck for employees. There may or may not even be a business without that planning in place. So sometimes creating that culture where it's nurturing for our employees to be the best that they possibly can, one in the short term, paradoxically, can increase productivity and data shows it and a better overall business. And that person that we're nurturing also may be the manager or helping to run the business or maybe even running the business. Sometimes a business is passed on generationally. Other times there's not necessarily a child to pass it on to and there's someone that needs to be raised up and it makes a world of difference if they know that business inside and out. So long-term and short-term productivity now and success and health of the business in the long-term.
Matt Paradise:So for resources, I do have a website. Mattparadisecom is my website and there are quite a few free resources on there, so I'm not selling extra stuff. Don't go there and buy some spammy course. Go there and get some free resources. I think that that's for sure. One area, as far as even other free resources around personal finance and education, depending on where listeners want to go to.
Matt Paradise:I love going to a place called Coursera C-O-U-R-S-E-R-A. Coursera is a website where you can take college level classes on everything from farming to finance, and, it's amazing you can take top college classes for free online and learn almost anything that you want to. So maybe you're trying to improve some of the productivity through automation at your farm. Well, there's a lot of tech that blows my mind that you can go to a college course for free and maybe enjoy it and learn something. Maybe it's not for you. There's not a financial risk and after 10 minutes, if it doesn't resonate with you, it doesn't have to be a time risk either, but you can get college level classes on accounting and just about anything there. Edx is another one, a combination of MIT and Harvard some smart people that created a platform to access college-level classes for free. There are so many more.
Matt Paradise:My website offers a lot of different resources and websites that I have personally used and vetted, so I think that sometimes it's a matter of knowing too much and doing too little, and I'm talking to myself here, because I want to learn. I want to know everything. We were talking before we hopped on Brandon, about your company and the tech that it creates and the different modules and ways that the different controllers operate. To me, that's fascinating and I can go down a rabbit hole and lose track of all the other things that I'm responsible for, because that fascinates me and I have a desire to constantly learn.
Matt Paradise:With money and finance, it's so much like that as well, where we can learn everything and everybody has a different opinion about this or that or what's best, or invest in this and you'll be all set. And sometimes it just takes taking a step back, being clear, being sober-minded to think what is actually the next best step to help me accomplish what I need, and sometimes it's simple. I mean, at the end of the day, we've probably all heard don't spend more money than you make. Well, in and of itself, true, it may not be the full advice that we might need because of all the other emotions and stuff we spoke about throughout this episode, but sometimes it can be as simple as that. For me, I need to kiss, keep it simple, stupid, because I can tend to overthink and, as a result, because I can tend to overthink and, as a result, that procrastination that comes about overthinking and be stuck from taking the next best step. So sometimes maybe it's not necessarily going to learn more, sometimes it's implementing what we already know.
Brandon Mulnix:That's so true and there's so many people that I can relate to the overthinking piece. I'm a react very quickly piece and then sometimes have to think about it later. But the idea is I can always change directions. Start doing something we talk about with finances. Start by saving $2 out of your paycheck. Start by doing something that's different than what you're doing today, because what you're doing today hasn't worked up to this point. The challenge is the stress that you're having. So it's doing something different than you're doing now, and it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be the best, it's just something getting yourself moving in that right direction.
Brandon Mulnix:I know being willing to dive in. We talked about leaders and being a leader, being willing to have that conversation with your team. I've been at two different companies that have provided financial counseling. From an HR perspective, priority health actually brought in a financial counselor for people because they realized the stress of finances and what it's doing to the human body. But providing that for your team, you know, for me it was someone speaking into my life years and years ago. The first one was Crown Financial was years ago. I don't even know if it still exists. And the second one was Financial Peace University, because I didn't grow up with the best examples for finance. I didn't make my best decisions, and I've talked about business, I've talked about other things, but the areas that I think I've grown the most was that self-education, finding that education for free.
Brandon Mulnix:There's a program called MBA for Free out there and literally it will teach you everything you need to get a college-level MBA without the debt. Now, you're not going to get a college level MBA without the debt. Now, you're not going to get a certificate, you're not going to have the network from the university, but you're going to have the same education. The resources are available to you. You don't have to go to college to get the resources. So, especially on the financial stuff, there's a lot of good resources out there. There's a lot of bad resources out there too. So, matt, in closing, is there anything else that you would like to share with the Poultry Leadership Podcast audience?
Matt Paradise:There's a lot. This has been an amazing conversation. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope that it's helpful for listeners. I think, in closing, the last comment that you made about just get going take a step, one step at a time is important.
Matt Paradise:I'll use the analogy of trying to steer a tractor. If we try to steer a tractor while it's still, it's going to be brutal. It's going to be brutal, but once it starts moving in a direction, it's so much easier. It's just physics. With our lives, with our finances, it's similar. Knowledge will only only get us so far, and there's a lot of bright people in the world and there's a lot of bright people who do nothing with it. But when we take that knowledge and apply it and move it to action and build discipline, habits and it creates a lifestyle that's powerful. And it creates a lifestyle that's powerful when we think how challenging our situations might be, and for some, maybe this is the best that it's ever been and for others, maybe it's the feeling of the sky is falling. For the latter group, I want to really impart the idea that there is always hope, there's always the possibility, no matter how difficult, challenging, frustrating the situation might be. There is always hope and always a way, and that way starts with taking that one next best step.
Brandon Mulnix:Well. Thank you, Matt. I appreciate you willing to share your story, your heart and your wisdom with the Poultry Leadership Podcast audience Listeners. If you are a leader and you're not worried about finances, just remember somebody on your team is. Be there for them. Take this subject, take it to heart, have empathy, figure out how you can get the most out of your team just by being there for them. Help guide them in this area. It is your responsibility as a leader of folks that you work with every day to be that mentor, that guide, and don't take that for granted.
Brandon Mulnix:So, as I close, I'd like to definitely thank our sponsor, Prism Controls. One of the things that you know keeps farmers up at night is finances and risk and all the things that go hand in hand, and one of the things that prism controls really focuses on is helping guide farmers through that by making sure that they have the technology to be able to handle some of the crises that they've been relying on humans for unsuccessfully for years. This podcast just wouldn't be possible without them, so please thank them you can check out their website. It's always in the show notes, things like that but also share this with somebody. Leave a comment. Give your best financial advice in the comments on the show. It really helps others. You're part of this show, you're part of the community and I appreciate all of you. So have a great day.
