A Stroke, Specialty Eggs, and HPAI: George Weaver’s 4th-Gen Trial by Fire

A fourth-generation story rarely follows a straight line, and George Weaver IV proves it. From sneaking into trade shows as a kid and napping under booth tables to helping steer a 90-person team, George invites us into a family business that measures success by people, not just pallets. He shares how his dad’s stroke pushed him into responsibility early, what it took to rebuild with humility, and why Westfield Egg Farm chose a model that keeps small family farms alive by letting growers own their birds, feed, and barns.

We dig into the craft of specialty eggs—think quail, duck, and heirloom blue—and why small-batch, high-precision packing is both maddening and magical. George explains how that complexity becomes a strength under pressure, especially during avian influenza, when diversified flocks and flexible schedules spread risk without collapsing supply. Strategy here is purpose-led: hire for character, train for skill, and make space for prayer and conviction when the “smart” move clashes with the right move. It’s culture as a daily practice, not a poster on the wall.

George also opens up about imposter syndrome, the myth that every young leader must plant their own flag, and the harder path of adding value to a mature, multigenerational foundation. We talk practical tools like Working Genius to map strengths and reduce friction, the shepherd’s balance between protecting a team and pushing it to grow, and how prison ministry reshaped his view of dignity, hiring, and the stories behind every resume. If you care about agriculture, family business, resilient supply chains, values-based leadership, or integrating faith at work, this conversation will stick.

Subscribe for more founder stories and real-world leadership playbooks, share this episode with someone building a legacy, and leave a review to help others find the show. Got a guest idea? Email bmulnix@prismcontrols.com and let’s keep amplifying voices that make our industry better.

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

Transcript

Meet A Fourth-Generation Egg Farmer

Brandon Mulnix 0:27

Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix. And man, I am excited today. We are on a conversation about Gen 4. What does that mean? We're talking to Generation Four Farmer. And what this is so important in our industry is because we're such a family-oriented industry that when I get a chance to talk to the different generations, I just learn something absolutely new from each one. I have George Weaver, the fourth, on the podcast, and I am super excited to talk to him. So, George, welcome to the show.

George Weaver 1:03

Thank you. Very excited to talk to you. And I am excited to share my story and talk leadership, talk fourth generation. And it's neat just learning to know you over the last couple of weeks and just seeing your passion for the industry, passion for generations and business, specifically poultry and farming, which I love. And as a young guy in the industry, I'm excited to explore this with you. So thanks for having me.

Brandon Mulnix 1:28

Excellent. Well, George, you've got generation five started. So let's let's let's learn about you and your family and a little bit about the farm.

George Weaver 1:37

Sure. Yeah. So I'm the oldest of four kids. George is a generational name. I'm George Brieber IV. And my dad's name is George, grandpa, and great-grandfather, all of which have been involved in our family business. So oldest of four kids grew up here on the home farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, raised us on the farm. We were homeschooled. And I have yeah, three other siblings, my sister Alicia, Bradlyn, and Justin, all of which are uh in the business at some capacity today. Justin's wrapping up high school still. So yeah, part of a family that's you know been involved in business ever since I can remember, specifically eggs and specialty eggs. I about three and a half years ago married my wife. I'm going on four years here in a couple couple months, and we have two children that are the same age because they're twins, Adeline and Elise. They were born a little over six months ago, and so no, no George Five because they were girls. Yeah, just very happy to be a dad and happy to transition into, you know, we're gonna talk leadership today and leading level when it's your kids. And so just excited to enter that stage and learn what that should look like for me as a dad. So yeah, that's a little bit about us.

Brandon Mulnix 2:50

Excellent. Can you talk about your farm a little bit? What you guys do?

Family Roots And Homeschool Beginnings

George Weaver 2:54

Yeah, so we are Westfield Egg Farm is the parent company. Some people might know us as Nature's Yoke or Utopia Hen Farms. That would be some of our brands that would be on retail shelves, but from uh more of you know who we are at the at the base of who we are, Westfield Egg Farm exists here to keep small family farms in business, and I can define that more as we talk. We have been here for over 60 years, and our goal is to take eggs from you know the local community. At one point we had chickens here on our farm. Currently, we have no chickens, there's nothing in line, everything is offline, and we have someone that goes around, picks up the eggs, brings them back here, we wash them, grade them, and then take them to market. All of our farmers own their birds. I say all, there's a couple exceptions for financial aid or something like that. But they own their birds, they own their feed supply, they own their farms and barns, and we just buy the egg, and which is is different in the industry. Uh, most of our industry is more of the caretaker model. So, again, our heart in that is to keep small family farms operating as their own little business network and to give that entrepreneurial level to the generations of farmers that are representative in their network. So that's what we do. We have our own brands that we obviously put those eggs into, but then we also do private label, custom packing. As an entity, we pack for a lot of national and regional brands where they will send their eggs in here, we will wash them, grade them, and package them for them as a service. So between those, you know, three different things, that's kind of what keeps us busy.

Brandon Mulnix 4:25

And you know, you mentioned kind of growing up in the farm. One of the things you said to me in our pre-interview is, you know, you kind of snuck into the to trade shows and things like that. What did the industry look like from the eyes of a 10-year-old versus now?

Westfield Egg Farm’s Model Explained

George Weaver 4:39

It yeah, that's a good question. It it was big. So Expo East was my show like that I looked forward to every year. I would get to, you know, for a while was in Boston. So for us, that was a good drive. So just the whole experience of getting the vehicle loaded with all the booth supplies, showing up there. And there was always this challenge. My dad's very much of a you know, ask for forgiveness later when it comes to some of these areas. And it was like, hey, let's let's see if we can, you know, get you in to help me. And you know, just put your shoulders back and you know, carry yourself in, act like you're helping me take stuff in. We're not exactly sure what the age requirements are here, but just you know, come along in. And we would, you know, sometimes be you know, stopped at the door and hey, you know, G4, you know, you're probably a little young to come in here yet. There's forklift. Why don't you wait out here while we, you know, so we had that for a couple years, and in time, you know, we just got better at it. And I was able to actually help him set up the booth. And I remember taking naps under the table. So that's my size at that point. And my mom jokes that you know, when I came out of the womb, I came out saying, hello, this is George. If you ever meet my dad, that's exactly the tone he answers phones in. And so just being immersed into this culture of selling and caring for people and relationships, I love it. I'm passionate about it. I'm excited to take on that legacy that my dad has just, you know, that I grew up in, and seeing him care for people well, and a lot of it happened there at the shows because you know, we're we're a manufacturer, we don't meet our customers every single day. And so to be able to see him do that at the show. I remember the Bob's Red Mill parade that would come through the show, and as a little kid, it'd be like, that's crazy. Like, that's the guy on the packaging, and little things like that that stick in your head. And we were always into the freebies, so it's like, George, you're out there handing out pens and tablets and getting people excited. So from a little age, I've been selling.

Brandon Mulnix 6:29

That is that's very cool. Just coming off of IPP and not seeing kids there versus when we go to Peak, there's lots of kids up there. It's incredible that just the difference. And but then when you're talking to the different level of show that you're talking about, this Expo East, you're showing the eggs, you're you know, you're kind of selling to the farmers in a different way. That that's exciting. And man, you had a great opportunity to learn. And and it was nice because I actually got to meet your dad here last week, and that was that was a cool experience. It really was to see that generation three and generation four. And I see where you get your looks and everything like that, and the smile, because your your dad was so welcoming just right away. It was like, wow, he's like a best friend, like right now.

George Weaver 7:16

Yep, that's my dad.

Brandon Mulnix 7:18

And and that takes something special, and how to how to carry that on to your kids is is really crazy. But as I've learned your story, there was a major pivotal moment in your life. And would you go on to share that story of really that moment where everything just changed?

Trade Shows Through A Kid’s Eyes

George Weaver 7:35

Sure. Yeah, so we we talked about this a little bit in the pre pre-podcast, but I was 11 years old, homeschooled, you know, here around dad very much. Quickly try to get school done, and then I would uh help him with projects and work with the team. 11 years old, dad's health started declining. We were unsure what it was. He was involved in lots of boards and lots of different ministry things, business, you know, you name it. He he was involved with lots of things and one by one, just continued to shave things off of his life. Responsibilities kept decreasing because his health was declining. He was probably 34, 33, 34. He was very young, too young to be having, you know, these types of things. So anyway, proceeded to in in when I was 11, he had his first TIA, which is a mini stroke essentially. He was, you know, went to pick up the phone and his arm didn't move. And he started having these experiences. And as a young kid, you know, I didn't really know what that meant. I, you know, I also didn't understand the depth of how bad it could be. We walked through that as a family and over a two-year period, continued to decrease physically, continued to let go of things, continued to delegate and pull out because he couldn't functionally do it anymore. I remember some of the, you know, one of the things he was involved with the local kids ministry, and he was holding on to that harder than he was the business. He said, I do not want to let this go. These are my people, this is where I'm caring for people. And I remember the day where he said, guys, I I can't I can't do this anymore. I have to pull out. The only thing I'm able to do right now is be there for my family. That did that did lead then into he had a massive stroke when I was 14 years old, paralyzing him on the left side. He was in total bed rest. And, you know, at that point it was very unclear where he's gonna go from here. He had like two strokes back to back. One was happened when he was in the MRI, they were watching it happen. Again, we were somewhat distant from that, given that you know, we were young, we were in and not completely sure of what that all meant for us. But what's interesting, prior to that, dad sat us all down in a room and he said, Kids, I don't know what's gonna happen. I sense I'm not it's gonna get this what he said. He said, It's gonna get worse before it gets better. But I believe that God's gonna carry us through. And as a family, if we can, if we can be there for each other, we'll be able to walk through this. So I think that was a pivotal point for me, like you mentioned. Being an oldest, being there, you know, for my siblings, for you know, the business at a young age in a very small capacity, but still, you know, represent helping to represent my dad in in areas where it was like, hey, can you go and tell our COO this thing? You know, because I can't. And I I'm not able to talk on the phone because it's too stimulating. Praise God. I mean, he's been you met him, you can't tell he was paralyzed on his left side. I mean, he was not at all mobility. He spent time in rehab, he did a couple years of extensive rehab, still some mental cognitive type stuff that you know he feels like he's probably never gonna return to what he would have considered his old self. We're just thankful to God for the healing and miracles that happened in his life. There's many stories. As a son observing that, there's multiple takeaways that I would say shape my life. One was the thing of how to put family first. He did that. He said, All I want to do is be here for my family. And if I'm able to do that, if that's all that God gives me, I'm gonna do that well. And all the things of you know what he built, you know, from a business perspective, from a you know, even reputation perspective, he was willing to put that down and say, I want to put my family first. And that's that shaped who I am today. And then, second to that is just that it kind of kicked me into gear at a very young age to be like, you are gonna help with responsibilities. And none of it was intentional, and none of it was like looking back, I didn't know that's what was happening. But I I kind of had a jump start, maybe the real world, at a young age, just because of that.

Brandon Mulnix 11:24

And so today, you know, you have many times where you have to choose family or work. How do you make those decisions today?

George Weaver 11:34

I think communicating hard intent and being aligned for me, it's with my wife and kids on you know, what is the need and what does help look like? One can say, and we have this conversation often, is what does you know good for home life look like? You know, you have this constant balance where people say, hey, if I can work overtime, that's good for my you know, my family because I can make more money. And then the next person says, 40 hours just my cap. If I work over that, I'm not having a good family life balance. And so I think it's specific to every person. For me personally, I try to communicate very clearly with my wife on, you know, you know, we're coming up towards five o'clock, and I see that suddenly my schedule's changing. I try to communicate that as early and as quick as possible. We are very routined, we're very structured, we like our timeliness and plans and things. And so I think the communication and that constant check-in for me with my wife and saying, hey, I have this IPPED show coming up. You know, for me, it was lining up my mom to take care of help take care of the girls because it is a two-person project right now at you know, six months old. So I think that's what kind of what I would say to how I try to balance that today.

A Father’s Stroke And Early Responsibility

Brandon Mulnix 12:43

No, that's that's solid. And you living it through your dad and then turning around and being able to execute with your wife, you know, and live out that those values is is really incredible. As most people are somewhat reflection of their parents. What they were taught by their parents is what they, you know, then do for their family. And I know my dad was a really hard worker. He instilled 12 hours a day, seven days a week as an electrician. And early on in my career, I found, you know, my goodness, that's how I showed my family value, not realizing that there was a part of me that was missing for them. And so I I had to go through that experience myself. And I'm glad that you've, you know, you've kind of navigated that a lot early in life because as a young, I'm gonna say, highly motivated individual like you are, it's really easy to put work in front of family. And so it is.

George Weaver 13:37

And it's you know, it's fun. I love work, I love what I do. There's a lot of great connections, there's a lot of energy, and I get to be very influential. And it's easy to, you know, be like, that could be more fun than you know, holding babies tonight or something like that, right? But I think it comes down to what is what is your purpose? Why do you exist? And, you know, for me, also that constant search and that constant wondering of what does being a good dad look like. And I was able to observe my parents, but I'm also like, I get I'm I am my own person. What does that look like for me? Everything they did intentionally, they did intentionally. And so, yeah, it's that constant search of like, what does that look like and what's the balance?

Brandon Mulnix 14:19

Yeah. Solid, solid stuff right there, man. All right, let's let's talk about a little bit more about your work for just a few moments here. Sounds like your dad came to a point of making some decisions for the business that really drove the business forward as we talk about your strategy and how you guys do things. Can you talk about your strategy a little bit?

George Weaver 14:42

Yeah, that that's a fun one because in some ways we're very not strategic and we just go and we figure it out. We definitely have that entrepreneur spirit in us, which isn't always great. But I would say our strategy has been more rooted and grounded in our purpose. So we spend some time over the years really defining, like at the end of the day, why do we do what we do? And it's very cliche and you know, it can be over talked about, but for us, we needed that because we needed that kind of guiding principle. We had it as a family. So that's the thing. We knew as a family what it was, but how do we cast that to a team of now, you know, 90 people? And it's like they want to be part of something that is meaningful and that they're creating value for the world. And one could say, how is eggs doing that? Right. It's like, what is an egg? And my dad tells a story about how he, when he was young, he wanted to be into something more fun, like golf balls. Like, surely we could like manufacture golf balls because that's such a fun sport. And you know, then coming to the realization of like, well, what about the sport of putting eggs on the table for you know, hundreds of thousands of people? And that what are you creating, the moments that you're creating through the product, you know, what you do, which is you know, family time, people eating food, gatherings, connection. So, you know, for us, our purpose as a faith-driven company is to honor and glorify God and making a positive impact for everyone we interact with. That's a high purpose because when you, especially with 90 employees, how do you create a team of people that are passionate and that want to do that? You can't fake caring for people or not long. You can try, it'll last for a little bit, but really focusing on what that should look like. And then the second piece of that is hiring people that are smarter than us, hiring people that know more than us that can actually take it to the next level. And in some ways, dad was forced to do that because he physically couldn't. And you know, he was able to do lots of different things and he was very talented. And to just suddenly get that pulled from him, he had to say, Well, I gotta hire a CEO. I need to have somebody else step in. And that is, I think, helped us shift more towards we're a family, you know, owned and you know, run business, but we have lots of great people helping us do that. And it's less about us being a constantly at the home or us constantly running the projects, and instead being like, How do we make sure that our vision and purpose remain strong?

Brandon Mulnix 17:01

Yeah, thank you for sharing your purpose. That was one of the early things when I was, you know, looking at who you were, your purpose really stood out and it matches a lot of what what my purpose is in life, and so it's easy to see that and it's easy to share that. But yeah, it is tough. Yeah. So as you shared that, you know, a question came to mind. I remember being in my 20s, and I had this thing, you know, a lot with imposture syndrome. As a young leader who's bringing all of these talented people around you, how do you navigate that feeling?

Choosing Family Over Work

George Weaver 17:33

There's a couple feelings that I've I've had to wrestle through, and I definitely am in no way saying I've conquered it or worked through it completely. One of which is how do I know that my value is actually what people around me say it is? Because it's easy when growing up in a family business, you know what you're good at. You're probably decently good at it, but you never went and experienced it in, I'm gonna do air quotes for those listening, the real world. And so that question as a young guy is like, is my value what they tell me it is, or is it even different? And I don't actually know that. I might be lied to as an individual. My experience is at a very young age, you know, I had people speak into my life saying, Well, what if you flip that and think about it differently and think about what if you are actually able to bring the value you're bringing? And what if the people that are actually around you care about you enough that they will tell you when you're not bringing the value that you should be bringing? So I think that was one of the things that was something I I've wrestled with and I feel like it's been good for me to wrestle with because I think that's where generational transitions go wrong. Because the next generation says, Well, I want to kind of go plant my own stakes in the ground somewhere, and I kind of want to plant, you know, my name on something. And it's hard to do when it's a generational business because you are in some ways inheriting a legacy that you have to decide, am I willing to humbly accept what has been laid before? And then you can also go the other way where you become very proudful about it, and it's it's that whole side. But I I would say for me, it's more of the challenge of accepting it and saying, Am I willing to walk in this and maintain this tone of business that has been conducted for the last 60 years? So I think that that is one of those things that I've I've wrestled with. And and then when it comes to you know leading people that are smarter than me, I think I'm I'm hungry for what I don't know. And so I see it as more of like a challenge to position myself around people that are just giving ideas and creativity that like I'm a very I'm a wanderer, I'm a you know, inventor type personality. And so to have individuals be like, we should try this, I'm like typically all over it because I'm like, let's do it. Like I didn't think about it, but like let's go. So I don't know, maybe it's my people side that I I do enjoy that piece.

Brandon Mulnix 19:47

No, I was gonna actually I was gonna ask you because you're in a family business, how do you get outside influence to constant to continually grow and learn from what works outside of the company versus what just has worked for the family for 60 years?

George Weaver 20:04

At a young age, dad enrolled me, is maybe not the right term, but in a local nonprofit called um it's it's with the eTown college and it's called the High Center. It's essentially high center for family business. It came out of the organization High Steel, same founder, um, founded this nonprofit center. And its sole purpose is to create networks of family businesses in multiple different industries. You never sit in the same room with your same industry and or even in typically even the same positions sometimes. It's very different in different backgrounds. And we meet every other month and we discuss business and we bring KPIs and we share numbers and we say this is where we're at. We do issue processing together. So when I I mean I started and I like they could have all been my dad, I think. Like, I mean, age-wise, I was definitely the young buck and had no clue what I was doing, and I still don't. But I found that like for me as a learner that learns best around it, that's how I learned sales. I I was around it, is to just be in the room and hear people talk about things. And there's so many times where you sit there and be like, wow, they're in hardware, you know, retail, hardware retail, let's say, and they're having the same issues I'm having in ag and you know, and saying, My issues aren't specific to just me. And the way I'm thinking about this could be different because of how they've done it. And this is some of the downfalls of family transitions, and and then that organization just has tons of other events as well and ways that we're getting input. So I I found that being very beneficial for me and anybody local to Pennsylvania, highly recommend it. There's a lot of opportunities there, and they're actively growing in the local community.

Brandon Mulnix 21:38

So that reminded me, my favorite thing to do is solve everybody else's problems. So in situations like that where you get to hear what other challenges are, it's so so innovating in your own head to say, huh, here's the solution we came up with for the hardware. But that applies also to my business in a way, but it is always fun to go through that. Brainstorming, problem solving, and then push away what I call the monkey onto them instead of having to worry about yourself. But you learn a lot.

George Weaver 22:08

Yeah. Oh, you learn so much. And for me, it's even terminology. You know, what does this mean? What, you know, and and hearing industry, business, terminology, and you know, understanding what is a KPI, you know, what does how does that affect me? You know, and just getting immersed in that has been really, really good. And it's helped me develop for sure.

Brandon Mulnix 22:26

Wow. That is, I mean, your dad blessed you in so many ways in that, and just it's giving you that exposure, especially coming from a homeschool world where you're even your family is your school. Your family is, and and so you kind of lose some of that outside influence for the for the better, probably most part.

George Weaver 22:42

Well, I mean it could be depicted. My wife, I I sometimes joke with my my wife. I'm not too socially awkward, am I? So we my wife was uh my wife went to school, and so we have this fun dynamic where she married a homeschooler, which is probably never was never in her dreams.

Brandon Mulnix 22:56

So let's talk specialty eggs. Sure. Why the shift to low batch, high precision custom packaging?

Strategy Grounded In Purpose

George Weaver 23:06

For us, we found that we have a niche in the market to be able to do something really well with excellence. It's kind of like sweat the small details that has a place, but that isn't isn't sometimes the the largest. And we we've transitioned over the years. I mean, we used to have like we started with like big barms with chickens and no cages before cages were even a thing. Then we went to cages and we went cage-free. Now we're free range plus. So we've been on a journey over the last 60 years. We we find that what we do best is the small batch, low volume, with high precision. It is hard to run one palette of non-GMO heirloom blue eggs through a machine. And not many people want to do that just because of how niche it is. Because, you know, you can imagine the amount of ups, and let's add something else to it. It's a six-pack pulp carton, right? Like, let's make it the most creative variation with 45-day date codes, you know, for three you know, cases and 60 date codes for the rest. Like, that's the type of thing our team does, and it is not the most efficient. And we acknowledge that and we recognize that. And for us, we see because of some of our passion when it comes to farming models and taking some of these small farms that couldn't exist if they had to upgrade to certain you know criteria. If if our goal is to keep those guys in business, we have to figure out how to do low batch, you know, low volume really good. So that's been where we planted ourselves. You know, we're in the, you know, think quail eggs, duck eggs, soy free, corn-free eggs. I mean, you list the niche stuff that's like not quote. Um now we also have things like a free range, free range organic pasturies, pasturies natural, which are larger volume movers. But and so then the custom packing offerings that we offer to you know, the world, we'll we'll work with national brands, but that will often send in some of those similar type items for them, or just as you think of like regional, like you know, let's say it's a California-based, you know, business, but they still have like half a trailer load of business in the East Coast. It just makes sense to do it on the East Coast then versus shipping that every week or whatever. So there's a lot of opportunities around that, and that's where we that's where we serve.

Brandon Mulnix 25:19

And as this small batch model continues to grow throughout the U.S., we've seen it with a really fast growth here recently. And some of your your flocks you mentioned ranging between four and 20,000 birds. How does this play into the whole avian influenza conversation?

George Weaver 25:36

The way I would think about that, and the way we've been thinking about it, is it doesn't completely like it, obviously, you know, our birds can get sick too. It's not completely avoiding that, but it's avoiding the amount of damage it does to the overall business. You know, for a farming family and you know, unit, it is hard. It is it is just hard to lose a flock, to work, go through that, to be gathering on that morning and then that evening, there's no longer birds in the house. Like there's it's it's it is in a it is a roller coaster for any farmer to go through. But when that happens, from our point of view and from our customers' point of view, they may or may not even feel a dip in production because we are able to, you know, well, hey, we can extend this flock by a couple weeks, we can move this here, and and so we have more, we have more ins and outs that we're dealing with, which also makes it very complicated, you know, because it's it is like a lot of planning. And, you know, because our farmers own their flocks, they're controlling when they're going in and out and essentially seek for approval, but still could just decide, hey, I'm gonna actually bump this two weeks forward because it works for my schedule because I'm going on vacation. And technically, that is the model because they own the birds, and we said we bought, you know, we're gonna buy them. So buy the eggs. So I would say that it comes with its challenges. It is a hard balance, supply and demand is is tricky for us. At the same time, when you talk, you know, HPAI, it does spread that out a little bit more. Now, we are most of our farms are in Pennsylvania. I should say all of them are actually that we contract directly with. Now, we'll bring in eggs from other places for our custom packing, but in those scenarios, you know, they are in Pennsylvania and HPIA comes through Pennsylvania. And so it's it's not like we're totally out of the zone, but I see this trend happening more than just in our industry or in our area, but where other guys are also saying maybe it would make sense for me to downsize my fox a little bit and spread them out. I might lose you know 10 cents of efficiency, but long term it's going to be better. So I think I think in some ways dad was ahead of that, even though he probably didn't intentionally know that that's one of the good reasons or perks of it. But yeah.

Brandon Mulnix 27:35

Yeah, I mean, as we're recording this, I just got the notice this morning of an outbreak there in Lancaster County. Yep. And that just, I mean, it brings this podcast all the way home for me to say, wow, you know, here, you know, your business is within the probably the control zone of the county of what's going on and and and how all that works. And it it creates a lot of challenges, I'm assuming.

George Weaver 27:59

It does. And we have, and I'm again very thankful for a team. Um, my brother is on the farm team as well, so he gets the dose of what that all means. And I appreciate what he's doing for the team. But we have a great team of people that have have done this well, you know, service technician, certified individuals that know how to know how to go out and check and help the farmers. Because half of this stuff is just constant learning for the farmer. They're not going to IPPE, they're not going to peak and learning about, you know, how to best, like, and they maybe should, but in a lot of ways, we are that bridge for them of what is acceptable, what is the new trends, how do we best serve our farms? And we are privileged here in Pennsylvania to be around very good feed companies and organizations that have great service techs, great support that our farmers are getting cared for really well, just because there's some awesome businesses that are running their businesses great. And so I think that that helps with that. But yeah, we're we're in the heat of it. There's, you know, there's control zones. We're, you know, trying to do everything we can to help, you know, not be a spreader of that. But it is, there's a couple of things that at the same time are very reassuring, and we have no chickens here. You know, our facility is not tied to production going out and becoming, you know, locked down here at our facility. Now, maybe one of our farms could be there or whatever, but it it doesn't completely shut us down, if that makes sense.

Navigating Imposter Syndrome

Brandon Mulnix 29:17

Nope, makes perfect sense. And thank you for sharing that. That's helpful to understand when you're an offline packer. You don't have the same, you know, restrictions as let's say if you had birds there.

George Weaver 29:28

Right.

Brandon Mulnix 29:29

Right. So as I've talked to you, as I've got to know you right in this podcast, you mentioned your faith and and how you've how it's just ingrained in your culture. Can you describe how you integrate faith, prayer?

George Weaver 29:43

I have seen my dad be very, and and and I think this is what's really neat. And I even my grandparents, I mean, they were inviting, I mean, someone's walking down the road back in the 80s, they probably need a place to sleep. I'm inviting him in. I mean, that was the environment that my great my grandparents had, still have, they care for people. They have hospitality is like their thing, and they do great at it. And you know, my dad is was similar to that, and I would say many of our team members are also there where they're very passionate about doing to others better than you would yourself. And I would say that at the if I was to say, what is the heartbeat behind all of our posters and all of our signs is do unto others as you'd have done to yourself. And if you do that every single day, and if you are willing to care for other people well, including your coworkers, your coworkers are in that exact same same bucket. When I'm interviewing somebody, I'll say we hire and fire based on our core values more than we do based on whether you can do the job great. Meaning, if you have character and if you are able to operate with excellence, integrity, family, eternal perspective, you know, we'll be able to help you. We'll be able to find something that works for you here. If that's not your strong, if you're not able to do that, then we're not a good fit. How it plays out on a practical way, we're very, we're very open about where we're at with our faith, and we want people to feel comfortable of all backgrounds. You know, we have all backgrounds represented represented here. And our goal is not to push anything on anybody, but be a space where we can very confidently and boldly be like, this is where we're at. We do pray before our meetings, we do pray, you know, things. I will tell people sometimes if you don't like if every decision you want to make in business needs to be based on business sense, then you're probably not a good fit here. Because there's times we pause because we don't believe God wants us to move forward and it might not look like the best decision in the moment. And, you know, some people don't want to work in that kind of environment and don't want that kind of pauses to happen occasionally. But I think those that have been here long enough have seen how the Lord's blessed that. And it just makes me excited to be like, this can be this is possible. We can fulfill the Great Commission in business. And, you know, how does what does that look like for us? So that's where a lot of my passion lies regarding regarding that.

Brandon Mulnix 31:58

It's exciting to see a generation with this passion. As, you know, when when you go to work every day and you're one way, and then you go to church on Sunday or Saturday and you're you're another way, and you keep this faith and work separate, God never calls us to keep it separate at all. Right. In fact, when it's working together, we're probably a much better human being when it's all intertwined and we're using our strengths and our gifts for the ministry and also for work. Right. Because we're a much more complete human being, similar to what we are at home, where we we fail, we fall on our faces, we make mistakes, but yet we, you know, we're forgiven, we give grace, we have all these amazing things that we do for each other because in the church we do for each other, but why wouldn't we do it at work? Yeah. It's really cool that you, as a, as a dad, as a you know, a son, and as a business person, really that's you you align with those values so well.

George Weaver 32:52

I just told someone today, caring for people isn't the most efficient. If we were to measure all of our time based on our output when it comes to business metrics, you know, we mentioned KPIs before. It it does it's not like sometimes stopping and listening and active listening and caring for people and praying for somebody, or this I mean, you name what it needs to be, doesn't result day one in something from a business perspective. But that's where you know our purpose is we constantly remind ourselves of our purpose and we say we're in business to care for people, whether that's the farmers keeping them in business, our employees, the people that we're selling to. And if we're not doing that, then like, you know, our family's not interested. Like, let's not do that. So I am just so thankful for a team of people that love that vision and support it. And, you know, I hear people all every day supporting that and speaking of their faith and telling their story, and we get work done. That's that that's not a problem, but we do it in the light of how do we make each other better every day. And if we're not making each other better, then you know, we're not doing our job.

Outside Mentors And Peer Networks

Brandon Mulnix 33:57

You were exposed to a lot of different things growing up, and one of those was prison ministry. How did prison ministry help you and your view of the world in what you're doing today, whether it's in HR or other things?

George Weaver 34:14

Probably one of the things that pop into my head the quickest is externally doesn't reflect internally. What someone looks like on the, and I'm talking very specific, what somebody looks like on the exterior does not determine what their interior looks like. Not everybody in prison obviously would be of that type, but it's very interesting. You walk into a prison, you're you're walking. For us, we sang, we enjoyed singing as a family, and that all came out of my dad's health issues, and and that was what we kind of poured our energy into as a family was to sing about God's goodness when it didn't feel like there was anything. You know, one of my favorite songs to reference is the title, God doesn't think like me. It's like, no kidding. You know, if it was up to me, I would not pick dad, you know, being paralyzed. But we we took that mission and that that energy there, and you sit down and you know, you're looking at a sea of faces, and you start into some songs or something, and it is amazing. Every, I think every time, maybe there's a couple scenarios where we wouldn't say this, but we go out saying, I thought we were supposed to minister to them. Like I thought we were the ones that were going into ministering to them, and they ministered to us. And seeing seeing you know, men and women just pouring out their hearts for God, saying, I'm gonna take what was the bad, like the worst, you know, worst situation that happened. And oh, by the way, I I got myself here in most scenarios, right? It's not like I'm I'm not I'm not saying that, and they don't say that either half the time. But but I want to take this hard, painful experience and turn it into something good, and I'm choosing to do that. And seeing people do that, when I I mean, you know, when I sit with people now that are saying, This is who I am, my res like a perfect example is a resume. My resume looks like this, but here's something that isn't able to be said in a resume, and this is what God's been doing in my heart, and you know, and their story comes out, and you know, it is it is always that constant balance of, you know, in business, you know, where do you take those chances on people? Where do you trust the stories? Where do you, you know, do your research and do some background checks, and all of that's important. I'm not, you know, putting down that at all. That's all very important and wise. What has changed in my mind is not judging a book by its cover and being willing to say, I don't know their story. Good chance they're more refined than me. And I would say that prison ministry specifically is has given me that opportunity. And yeah, we always came out just like super excited, and we knew it was God's work because you know the enemy didn't like it, and so all sorts of weird random things would happen that were like totally not normal. Anything from falling through the shower door to the sewer pipelines backing up in the RV, and just you name it, like it would happen when you're doing prison ministry, and it was just for us that was an affirmation that like God's in this, and the enemy doesn't like it, so that you're just gonna get bombarded with this, you know, nonsense and gave us you know faith to work through that as a family.

Why Small-Batch Specialty Eggs

Brandon Mulnix 37:02

It's so interesting to hear that perspective of things because as you were talking, I was literally hearing the words that you were just gonna say in you know a few moments about not judging a book by its cover and just the value of people. Every human has a story. And where they're at with business, where they're at as employees, as a leader, it's our job to be aligned in that story with them and to be part of that and to unto hear it. I think the best team members and best people I've ever been worked with, I've known their story. And the ones that I, you know, maybe judge that book by the cover right away and and kind of put them in a category where I'm like, you know, they're they're just I hate to say useless to me. I just don't feel connected to them. Is those are the people that I didn't know their stories and I didn't realize just how good of a person they really were because I didn't let myself get close. And so many times as a leader, we we try to distance ourselves. And I've heard HR at different places say, oh, that's not your job to know their story. And it's like, no, I spend more time with them every day than I do sometimes my own family. It's really important for me to understand their story in order to help lead them, guide them, understand the trauma in their life to help make sure that they're, you know, getting, they're feeling valued and just having a great experience at work because it's not always fun. It's not always wonderful when you have to go and depopulate a chicken house or clean up after a spill because the you know cartons fell over and or the cartons didn't print well, and now I gotta repack all those eggs. I can just imagine there's hundreds of stories you have that are problems that make the work not fun, but your people do the work and they realize that they're part of a team.

George Weaver 38:53

Yeah. And another thing is how do you take that pressure and what is the best thing as a leader to do to keep the team engaged over those periods of time? As believers, we have heaven, we're looking forward to heaven. We can we can go through a lot because we know there's there's something, you know, an eternity, an eternity waiting. What happens when you're in business when you're in the grind and you're like, what is in this thing for me long term? And you know, you deal that with as a leader, you deal with that every day, or maybe not every day, but when you go through those scenarios, and you know, where's that balance? And I'm I'm I'm not I don't know the answer. This is where I'm currently, this is current stuff I'm thinking about. Where's the balance in saying, how do we learn how to lift weights so we're stronger? You know, when you're lifting weights, you add more weight, you don't take off weight as a solution for hurt and pain. Where's that balance? And again, when we're working with humans, this isn't and this isn't my muscle, this is humans, you know, muscle and memory and energy and families. And when do you not heap more on? That is not at all what I'm saying, but give give a sense of and try to help lead that that environment towards growth, stability, and more resiliency. Because like hard times will happen, period. Like it happens, and so how do you not just constantly look for, hey, but bring in a second facility that's gonna help with space? That is absolutely true. But is that always the right method? And I I'm asking myself, I don't know the answer to that. And it's it's just something that it's like, what does that look like? Because everybody's different and everybody experiences it differently.

Brandon Mulnix 40:26

No, that's absolutely really great insight because as a leader, I struggle at identifying is the employee injured or do they need to be challenged more? Because if they're injured, they're broken, they need they need you to guide them and not put more on. Yep. But then there's those those those team members that just once they're challenged and they find out what they can do, and they grow so much more. Because we don't grow as human beings from the easiness of life. We grow from the challenges. And as a leader, I want to make sure they're getting challenges, but I also don't want to break them.

George Weaver 40:59

Yep. It's it's that fine balance. Fine line. Yeah, there's a book called The Way of the Shepherd, and it kind of talks about that whole idea of as a shepherd or as a leader, I have my flock. And, you know, when do you grab them from falling off the cliff, or when do you let them trip? You know, learn that rocks, if I don't jump over, will you know, make me trip? And so it's it's a great, great read for anybody that you know cares about looking at it from a maybe more of an internal perspective and caring for a flock. And I think about the verse in Romans 5, like three through four, when it talks about when you're faced with problems, when you're faced with circumstances, how do we rejoice in those moments? It's like, how what does that supposed to look like? And how do you take that as an individual conviction and and galvanize a team towards that? How do you rejoice in sorrow, rejoice in tribulation, so that you can develop endurance and have strength to keep going? And so something we use, you know, when we talk about tools, we use the six working geniuses, Patrick Lincioni. Highly recommend for anybody that wants to talk about like where's you know your team's strengths. It's kind of like you know, there's all sorts of disc profiles and things like that. But working genius, we really like, and it shows your strengths, your competencies, and your frustrations. And it doesn't mean you can't do your frustrations, but it's like it frustrates you. It's like the there's no you know, bottom of the cup, and it's just you put water in and it's fallen out. And so they have a nice way of map team mapping, and so we do that often where we'll sit down with the team and say, we're currently going through this. How are we experiencing each other in this moment? And are we like just totally missing each other? And we're all trying to do the exact same thing, but the way we're communicating, the way we're engaging with each other, is totally not life-giving. So, for those listening, it's a tool I recommend, and we use it here.

Brandon Mulnix 42:49

Excellent. I love it when guests provide tools for others because it's something we can grab a hold of and and learn from outside. As we start kind of wrapping things up here, I have just a few more questions here. What as you look around to the other Gen 4, Gen 4 growers, stuff like that, or guys that are maybe in your wheelhouse, what's one leadership myth you'd like to bust that says, hey, this is something somebody told me that is completely not true?

Avian Influenza And Resilience

George Weaver 43:16

Oh man, that's a good question. Something I want to bust. I'm sure I have something. I think it goes, and I don't know that this is completely this might be a version of what you're asking. So and I and I referenced it earlier, and it's something to the fact of, and I don't know that anybody's told me this, but it's a lie I believed. Is my own success and performance comes out of what I mean does versus, and I went back, it goes back to that whole whole lie of I should be able to plant my own flag and put my own stamp on this as a young guy. And as I mean, and I think this is just young people in general, but I think our generation is especially that way where we're we're seeing a lot of entrepreneurs, we're seeing a lot of influencers, we're seeing people say, My name is attached to it. And I'm not saying it's all completely wrong. thing but for me that lie of like that's where great growth is I think is a lie and I think that like it can be there but bigger picture of what I've experienced is um being willing to say how do I take a baton that's already been carried and as a fourth generation that's that is a hard that's a hard thing to do and how to do it well and in humility and in love while still having conviction but being willing to say you know I want to learn from the generation before me.

Brandon Mulnix 44:28

That's solid that's a solid lie to break and a solid statement in regards to tear carrying that baton in so many ways I just think of it as as you know born on third base. That's a term that got coined here a little bit ago pretty often you'd hear around you know college football. But the idea is you know how do you make something that's already successful more successful and without basically hey well you you got there because you wrote on the coattails of those before you right when that's a foundation set. I mean if you start on a great foundation great but it's still you took it one it's harder sometimes to see success yeah that one percent you know the one percent of a million dollars is much greater than one percent of a hundred dollars and so to make that one percent change is hard but yet it's so great I'm grateful that you're able to identify that and bring that out to to the listeners because there's a lot of young guys and gals like yourself that are man mom and dad have this amazing reputation in the industry. The business is so solid I can never be my dad. Yep and to realize the industry doesn't need another one of your dads they need you and what you bring to the industry. And that's powerful.

George Weaver 45:46

Yeah and it's not about you I say I'm talking to myself like George get out of the way it's not about you. Like if if you're trying to make it about you your step one is wrong. And I I have to daily remind myself about that. But it is something yeah I completely agree with what you're saying. Spot on all right best piece of advice from your dad he's given me lots of pieces of advice but if I was to say what has probably been the one of the more foundational uh points to me is be quick to ask for forgiveness or be quick to share your current position. So and that's maybe that's maybe vague but what what I mean by that is you know you're struggling through something you're a young guy trying to figure out life you've made a mistake in business be quick to go either back to that person or go to somebody and for me growing up it was my dad and he did it vice versa. You know oh man I I said something to a customer today I wish I wanted you know how do you think I should have handled that I'm like five I'm like I you know but at a very young age he opened that door of communication back and forth and so when I think of being a dad and wanting to do that for my kids I want to be quick to say this is how I messed up today you know what do you think I could have done better? That way someday they can come to me and say I think I messed up today. Can you speak into my life like that? And so I think living in the open like that is something that I want to continue doing it's something I saw my dad model. He's an open book you do you just hang out with him and he's just you know you can tell where he's at so that's awesome.

Brandon Mulnix 47:17

And the last question I have is where would people find more information about Nature's yoke or utopia hen farms?

George Weaver 47:24

Yeah we're active on LinkedIn trying to tell our story well that's something that we haven't done maybe as well over the years and so our goal is to try to communicate where we're currently at so LinkedIn Westcoteggfarm.com is our website and all of our brands can be accessed through that if you're in the East Coast and you're in a retail store you know you can find different ones of our brands and maybe find our plant code on the side of a carton that we might have packed. So yeah we're here in Lancaster Pennsylvania excited to continue to help the small family farm industry and yeah I love making connections and I I appreciate this opportunity.

Faith, Values, And Daily Decisions

Brandon Mulnix 47:59

Well thank you George it really means a lot to me that you're so transparent telling your story sharing your faith and you know it just gives me hope for the future of our industry not that I didn't have hope for the industry it just gives it really solidifies my my confidence in the next generation of farmers that are that are you know gonna be there for for my kids and my grandkids and and that's and that's just amazing to me. So I I definitely want to say thank you. Check out Westfield Farms check out what they're doing follow George on LinkedIn he's definitely what I'm gonna say passionate motivated and has a lot of great opportunities ahead of him and before I close I do have to say thank you to Prism Controls. As I kick into season three here it's been two years of providing people with opportunities to share their stories the podcast continues to evolve. It evolves because of the support of Prism Controls and as I look around the industry and as I see people like George people that I've interviewed in the past I just I'm so thankful so thankful for this opportunity to host the podcast but because of the platform that I've been able to provide for people to share their stories and share their wisdom and just help other people grow in the industry. And none of that would be possible without Prism Control sponsoring this podcast. So please if you know somebody that I should be interviewing please let me know. I am always looking for new guests people that bring value to the industry people that have an amazing story that we need to hear. And I want to be able to continue to open this platform up to share those stories to give people opportunities like for example the FFA kid I had on last season it was amazing to give that kid an opportunity to share a story and I've heard so much positive feedback from the next gen five you know generation of these kids coming up through and the leadership that's coming. And so if you have an idea please contact me my email address bmolniks at prismcontrols.com you can find me on LinkedIn follow the podcast and share this with others so with all that I appreciate you as an industry and have a great day.